Sometimes to save the ones we love, sacrifices must be made.

Elsewhere…Watchtower

Walking side-by-side, hands clasped tightly around eachother's waists, Clark and Diana were on top of the world, literally and figuratively. Despite the chaos in the conference room from multiple bombshells, neither was feeling tense any longer, simply able to finally enjoy eachother openly.

"I love you Diana" Clark said, stopping briefly and looking into her eyes.

"Of course you do Kal. I love you too. More than I could have ever imagined" Diana responded, her heartbeat suddenly accelerating, doing flips, and enjoying the smile that lit up her love's face when she saw that he had heard it.

"You know, although I am not happy that Wally broke it the way that he did, could it really have gone any other way?" Clark asked, causing Diana to giggle and shake her head.

"No it really couldn't have Kal. We are so lucky…and cursed at the same time to have friends like the ones that we do" Diana commented, as Clark joined with her laughter.

"A truly dysfunctional family like no other" Clark noted, causing Diana to squeeze him just a little tighter.

"And that family is about to get a little bit bigger" came the voice of Selina from behind them, who wrapped her arm around Diana's other shoulder, dragging Bruce along behind her.

"Congratulations Sister, I am so happy for you!" Diana turned and gave her friend a big hug, Batman briefly grateful to her that she had stopped Selina from pulling him along.

"Happy for ME?! You finally land Superman and shake the damn planet, and I'm going to have half-cat/half-bat babies. Girl, I'm happy for YOU!" Selina said laughing, as both Clark and Dianna joined in, causing Batman to let out a gruff sigh next to her.

"Oh be happy dear, can you turn off the Bat just for a moment and share with your friends?" Selina said, reaching back and pulling Bruce closer.

He finally allowed a small smile to creep up and turned to Clark, noting "Well I can tell you one good thing that will come out of this mess, after everything that just happened in there, I guarantee you no one will ever miss another meeting again."

"Oh definitely!" Clark said, reaching over and knocking Bruce on his shoulder.

"So are you going to ask them? Or are you going to make me do it?" Selina asked Bruce, suddenly making his smile disappear again. Batman was back.

"Ask us what?" Diana stopped walking, turning to Selina and Bruce, who both suddenly looked uncomfortable. That was concerning to her as almost nothing made Batman look uneasy. She had seen him defuse WMDs while having two secondary conversations at once.

"Yes Bruce, what has accelerated your heart-rate more than the last time you had to use kryptonite on me? Clark said, earning himself a Batman-glare.

"Watch it Kent, or I will rescind my offer to make you and Diana our children's godparents" Bruce warned, causing both Clark and Diana to stop smiling in surprise.

"You want us to be the godparents to your children?" Diana questioned, her voice cracking under the surprise and emotion that was making its way into her throat.

"Bruce…I don't know what to say" Clark said, rubbing the back of his neck in disbelief.

"Well we were hoping you'd say yes, although Bruce really needs to work on his request skills" Selina commented, beaming as Batman sighed.

"Yes, we are asking you two if you want to be godparents to our children. It was part of the reason why I did what I did to you Kent, to get you moving. Our children are going to be brought into a world that is not really any safer than when we first entered it. For all the work we do, it seems the scales are always tipped against us. I may not believe that there is good in everyone, but I know you two are the best people I know. I could not think of anyone else I'd rather have looking over the next generation. I have hope for the future, for all of us" Bruce explained, causing Selina to look over at him with all the love in her heart.

"Diana if you had any doubt on how I could have fallen in love with him, now you don't" Selina said, reaching over and embracing Bruce.

"I never had any doubts Selina. We all know he's a big softie under that suit. It's going to be even harder for him to brood when he's got two babies climbing all over him" Diana noted, bringing everyone, even Bruce to laughter.

Bruce's laughter only lasted for a moment and then suddenly Batman was back, his face composed, as he turned to look at Clark and Diana.

"Well? What's your answer? We've got Gods to deal with" Batman said, folding his arms infront of him.

Clark and Diana looked at eachother and smiled, reaching for and holding their hands tightly.

"Yes, of course" They both said together, causing Selina to jump for joy and embrace Diana warmly.

"Thank you both of you" Bruce said, reaching forward to shake Clark's hand.

Clark looked at his friend's hand for a moment and then smiled. "Not this time Bruce" He said, before reaching forward in a blur and pulling Bruce into a bear-hug.

While initially awkward and caught-off-guard, Bruce shrugged and returned the embrace of his friend. Of course, like most good things, it was abruptly cut short. There was a flash and a click, causing all four of them to turn around quickly, and both hugs were stopped.

"That photo is going to be my screensaver forever. Batman hugging Superman and Wonder Woman embracing Catwoman. This is the best day of my life" Wally commented, standing there in his scarlet uniform, and holding up his smartphone.

"FLASH!" Batman roared, turning on Wally, whose laughter suddenly shifted to terror.

"Don't look at me Wally. I'm not going to save you this time" Clark said to him, in-between the ticks of the clock.

"Don't need you to Supes, I can take my licks as good as the next guy" Wally grinned, before allowing Batman's armored fist to connect with the side of his head, sending him crashing into a nearby bulkhead.

"Why did you let him hit you? You could have moved" Clark asked, briefly surprised that Flash hadn't dodged the strike.

"Because this way I don't have to look over my shoulder, on-edge for the next month that he's plotting revenge behind my back" Flash commented, staggering to his feet, and wincing while rubbing his jaw.

"If you think I'm done after just hitting you, you've got another thing…" Batman's threat was cut off by the ringing of Flash's comlink inside his ear.

"Saved by the bell" Selina smirked as Wally shrugged and pressed the side of his armored mask.

"Go, go for Flash" Wally said, eliciting groans from the group

"Wally, this is J'onn, I just received an emergency beacon from Iris. She's in trouble. Wally, I'm sorry, but it looks like Zoom is back." The voice of the Martian Manhunter rang out for everyone to hear. The joyous mood immediately returned to business, all of the heroes were soldiers and ready to move when the time came.

"Go Flash. We've got it covered here. Let us know if you need help" Clark said, as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Catwoman also nodded.

"Zoom. I thought I was done with that time-travelling pain in the ass" Flash grumbled, lightning flashing with fury in his eyes.

"Are you ready Flash?" J'onn asked, as Wally nodded.

"Let's get going. Get me in as close as possible" Flash commented, already beginning to teleport out of sight before their eyes.

"Good luck" Diana said, as Flash smiled once more before vanishing.

"I hope everything is going to be alright. I still can't believe Wally found someone to put up with him" Selina said, shaking her head briefly.

"There's someone for everyone" Clark said whimsically, turning to Diana, who beamed at him, all the love in the world sparkling between them.

"Alright kids, take it easy" Batman grumbled.

2 minutes to go…

"Did anyone else hear that?" Clark asked, suddenly on alert, having briefly heard a series of intermittent clicks throughout the space station.

"What is it Kal? My hearing is almost as good as yours and I didn't hear anything" Diana asked, closing her eyes and trying to hear what her love had picked up on. "Her love" She thought that sounded nice, but he would always be Kal to her, that pet-name suited her fine.

Clark closed his eyes, listening, but the sound had vanished, as he now only heard the normal sounds of the workings of the Watchtower.

"I am not sure, I thought I heard something but now it's gone" Clark frowned, still uneasy about the noises and also about Flash's sudden departure.

"It was most likely nothing, still I will ask the Atom to do a review of the station's systems" Batman said, forever the one on alert, always.

"That sounds like a plan to…" Selina was cut off by the voice of Captain Marvel, which cut through all of their comlinks.

1 minute, 30 seconds to go…

"Captain Marvel to Justice League!" They all immediately noticed the franticness in Batson's voice and were all brought to unease as very little could scare the World's Mightiest Mortal.

"Billy, just calm down, this is Superman, what's happening?" Clark spoke up first, his voice shifting slightly and deepening as he entered Superman mode.

"Clark! Black Adam has escaped!" Marvel yelled, as the color drained from all their faces.

Watchtower Prison Cells, Moments ago…

"So child, how much longer do you plan to keep me in this enchanted cell?" Teth-Adam spoke from inside his confined room, magically sealed to prevent the now frail-looking old man from calling on the forces that could transform him into Black Adam.

"Yes, you can definitely call me a child, looking like that" Captain Marvel quipped, his arms folded across his red and gold uniform, regarding the man before him.

"How can such a sad-looking old man have caused me so much trouble over the years?" Batson wondered to himself.

"Jest if you will, but I will not be staying here long" Adam grimaced, painfully leaning back on the small metal cot inside his cell.

"Oh is that so? Well we will see what the wizard has to say about that" Marvel commented, surprised that Adam smiled at this comment. Usually any mention of Shazam either elicited fear or anger from him, not the look of satisfactory knowing that was currently on his face.

"You have no idea what is coming boy. Not even the wizard will be able to save you from it. You're all going to die, horribly and painfully" Adam said, suddenly jerking up, much faster than Billy would have thought he could.

"If I had a dollar everytime you said that, I wouldn't need a job anymore" Marvel smiled, although curiosity began to get to him, as Adam spoke of a coming evil, of course most likely referring to what they had all just been briefed of.

"You are referring to the coming of Set? The battle that is to be fought?" Marvel asked, cocking his right eyebrow at Adam, hoping maybe he could play on his arrogance to get him to reveal something about the other side of the plans.

"Battle? There won't be a battle my child. Set will rise unchallenged. You will never get there" Adam said, slowly moving off the cot and moving to the edge of the magically sealed room, where he was just inches away from the Captain's face.

"What are you talking…" Marvel cut himself off, just about to get more details on their plan, when he suddenly felt a mystical disturbance in the room, an evil force from outside intruding.

"Something is terribly wrong" Billy thought to himself, shuddering from the crackle of dark energy in the air. The twisted growing smile on Adam's face only worried him more.

"What am I talking about? Oh well, let me put it in words…or rather a word a mere boy would understand…SHAZAM!" Adam shouted, bringing the enchanted lightning down on him in the cell, transforming him back into Black Adam in a loud crack and flash of light.

"How did you transform Adam?! You can't call on the lightning from inside that cell!" Marvel yelled in disbelief, confused at the forces that he was sensing.

"Goodbye Captain. I'll tell the wizard you said hello, just before I crush him, because you'll be long dead before then" Black Adam laughed, disappearing in a dark flash of black smoke.

"Damn it! I'm in trouble now" Billy thought to himself, activating his comlink and beginning to alert the others of Adam's surprising prison-break.

Watchtower Hallway, Now…

"How did he escape Batson?! That cell was magically sealed!" Batman yelled, already beginning to run in the direction of the prison cells.

"Ares. I can't believe I didn't sense it before. I feel his energies in the Watchtower. Only his dark energy could have broken through the enchanted seals around the prison cells" Diana spat bitterly, momentarily furious at both herself for not feeling it sooner, and at the intruding God, who once again was causing trouble in her life.

"Ares? It seems they want to get a head-start on this coming apocalypse" Clark sighed, his face grim, having been on the receiving end of Ares' powers as well as seeing what Ares had done to Diana, her mother, and her people.

"Well we knew the Gods were going to be involved" Batman said, as they all made their way around the corner to where Captain Marvel was standing in disbelief, staring at the now empty cell, his hands on his head.

1 minute to go…

"Batson, what in the hell happened?!" Batman demanded, immediately rounding on the baffled kid.

Before Marvel could respond to defend himself, J'onn's voice cut through their comlinks.

"Batman, there's an urgent call coming in for you, I do not recognize the voice" J'onn said, causing Bruce to cease his interrogations momentarily.

"If you do not know who it is, how do you know it is urgent?" Batman asked, now slightly annoyed that J'onn interrupted him because of a potential unknown.

"Because he asked for Batman and then clarified, for Bruce Wayne" J'onn responded grimly, causing them all to jerk their heads over to Batman, who was speechless for a moment.

"Put the call through J'onn" Batman responded, bracing himself with some tension in his voice.

"Coming through now" J'onn said, as the click came, and they all could hear the deep breathing on the other end of the comlink.

"Yes? You have my attention, go ahead" Batman said with some urgency.

"Bruce." They all heard the electronically-synthesized voice come through the speakers.

"Don't ask who this is, I won't tell you, and you're wasting time. Ares has triggered a series of Hephaestus-made explosives throughout the station. That's why those like Superman and Wonder Woman could not sense them when he triggered them. You have less than a minute if my numbers are right and they usually are. Tick tock Bruce." And the line went dead.

30 seconds to go…

For maybe half a second everyone processed the information, not breathing and not speaking. To anyone else it would have been less than a blink of an eye, but for them it was an eternity.

"Diana is it true?" Batman was the first to speak, turning to Wonder Woman, knowing that the Goddess of Truth would know right away if what the mystery voice had said.

Diana reached for her lasso quickly, it glowing brightly at her touch, and her eyes shot open with shock.

"Hera, no" Diana prayed in desperation to herself, unwilling to believe that it had come to this.

"We have less than 30 seconds before the Watchtower explodes" Diana said, immediately sending their world around them into chaos.

"J'onn prepare all teleporters immediately! Watchtower will detonate in less than 30 seconds! Station-wide alert now!" Superman shouted, and J'onn, the Martian who had watched his family and race die, responded as any good soldier would.

"At once Superman" J'onn spoke calmly, already activating the teleporters across the station, and issuing his voice across the minds of all those in the station, not wanting his message to be misinterpreted amongst the now flashing red lights and emergency sirens.

"Station-Wide alert. Immediate evacuation at all points. There are several bombs on-station. You have 20 seconds. Move!" J'onn's voice yelled through the station, already beginning to teleport JL members off-station, focusing on those who could be killed in the blast or could not survive in the vacuum of space. It was happening all over again for him, he knew he couldn't save everyone, but he could damn well save as many as he could.

"Fire. There's going to be fire in the explosion" J'onn thought to himself, momentarily realizing that if he did not get clear of the station, he was vulnerable to the blast.

"I will protect my family. Good luck you three. You were the best friends a stranded Martian could have asked for" J'onn said out loud, allowing Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman to hear his final thought, as he turned his task to the teleporters, shutting his mind to their incoming thought-pleas.

"Going after Iris was a distraction. They got Flash off-station because they knew he could have helped us save more people. They planned this" Batman said bitterly, disgusted at himself for not figuring it out sooner.

Watchtower Cafeteria, 15 seconds to go…

They all heard J'onn's alert in their minds, and they were already up, as the sirens had already started moments before. Over a hundred voices across the station were all speaking at once. J'onn had to focus, his ears and nose starting to bleed from the overwhelming panic that set in immediately.

"J'onn, get Dinah out of here!" Oliver Queen was the first to shout out loud, leaping to his feet.

"What do you think you're…" Dinah Lance spun to face her love, about to sputter off a rebuttal, when Oliver pricked her on the side of the temple with one of his darts, immediately knocking her out cold.

"Goodbye Pretty Bird" Green Arrow said, as he watched the woman he loved vanish out of sight.

"J'onn get the others out of here!" Queen yelled, turning and grabbing a surprised Cyborg by the shoulder before hitting the button on his suit that atmospherically sealed it for him.

"You owe me for this Victor" He managed to say before throwing him into the airlock and hitting the release button, jettisoning him into space.

Nearby Aquaman was frantically shouting at his wife Mera, who refused to leave his side.

"Mera don't argue with me, there's not enough time to save all of us! You're going now! J'onn get her out now!" Arthur yelled.

"Don't you dare J'onn, keep your focus elsewhere" Mera responded, shielding her mind and body from moving.

"What are you doing?!" Arthur roared, moving towards her.

"Saving the man I love" Mera responded sadly, her tears beginning to fall. Suddenly all the pipes on the wall began to shudder as she used her hydro-kinesis to encase Arthur in a hardened ball of water, made stronger than steel by her mind, shielding him from the coming blast.

Aquaman pounded on the force-field in front of him, unable to break through his wife's powers.

"Mera, no! I love you!" Arthur screamed, his tears falling as he tried to reach her.

"Atlantis needs their King. I love you" Mera responded, choking out her response, and enjoying the last few precious seconds she had with him.

Just down the hallway from the cafeteria, Hawkman and Hawkgirl were streaking through the corridors towards the Watchtower's outlying structures.

"We have to get to the ship Carter!" Shayera shouted at her husband as their wings powered them down towards the hanger where one of the Javelins would be waiting for them.

"We're not losing eachother again…at least not yet" Carter responded, grinning briefly, acknowledging the cycle of reincarnation that would forever reunite and doom them.

"I'll love you forever Carter" Shayera said, rounding the corner, the Javelin in sight, but the seconds ticking down.

"And I you Shayera" Carter said, enjoying the last moments with his beloved wife.

"Not enough time" Shayera thought to herself.

"Find me sooner next time would you Carter?" Shayera said, causing Carter to jerk his head towards her.

"What do you…" Carter was cut off as Shayera grabbed him by the left wing and used all her strength to launch him into the open hatch on the Javelin, the momentum of his weight slamming the door behind him and sending the ship careening out of the launch bay.

"See you soon my love" Shayera said softly, watching the Javelin spin into space, carrying her eternal true love with it.

Watchtower Hallway, 15 seconds to go…

"J'onn get Selina out of here!" Batman yelled, and almost immediately she began to dematerialize out of sight.

"Bruce! Don't you dare play the hero! We are all getting out of here!" Selina screamed.

"Tell our children that their father loved their mother and them very much" Bruce said, Selina yelling in grief and anger as she teleported out.

"Get moving you two! You can save some of the others before this place blows" Batman said, turning on Clark and Diana who were standing next to him.

"We're not leaving you Bruce!" Clark yelled and moved towards him, but was brought to an abrupt halt when Bruce produced a grenade and threw it at his feet, it detonating in a cloud of kryptonite gas, stopping his friend from reaching him.

"Yes you are! Diana, get him out of here, save the others!" Bruce yelled, having effectively stopped Superman from saving him and by proxy Diana, who immediately turned to assist Clark.

"Damn you Bruce, damn you!" Diana shouted, pulling Clark alongside her and beginning to blur down the hallway as she picked up speed.

"What the hell happened Diana?" Clark said, taking two seconds to recover as she streaked him away from the offending kryptonite gas.

"Bruce gassed you Kal, he's being eternally arrogant as you know" Diana sighed in frustration and grief, having had two of her best friends tell her in just the last few moments that they were staying behind, going down with the ship as it were. However, for someone gifted with speed by the Gods, a few seconds was an eternity.

"God damn him!" Clark shouted, before briefly turning and grabbing Green Lantern Hal Jordan by the back of his uniform, blurring him into the workout area of the Watchtower, where Fire, Ice, Metamorpho, and others were standing there in momentary disbelief.

"Hal, get as many people out of here as you can! You've got seconds left" Diana commanded, her warrior instincts taking over.

Hal, being the strong-willed ex-pilot that he was, did not stop even for a moment, stretching a bubble out around himself and beginning to envelop those in front of him.

"I got this covered, keep moving you two!" Hal shouted, gritting his teeth in concentration, trying to cover everyone in the moments remaining.

"Kal we have seconds left, I don't know if we can survive Hephaestus-crafted explosives. They were designed with people like us in mind. Why would he create those for Ares? If we get out of this I'm going to break every bone in that God's body" Diana wondered aloud as they streaked from room to room, searching for any remaining.

"I don't know Diana, I just don't know" Clark responded between the seconds, as they blurred into one of the many entertainment rooms where Nightwing, Red Arrow, Raven, and Starfire were having a movie marathon.

"J'onn get them out of here!" Clark yelled, startling the four of them, who had not even seen the two of them enter the room.

"The teleporter energy is almost depleted. It will not be enough to get them out in time" J'onn replied grimly, his Martian brow covered in a thin layer of sweat, working with multiple limbs to get as many people off as he could.

"I know what to do!" Diana shouted, moving from the room, and returning less than half-a-second later with Zatanna, the fishnet-stocking clad magician's hair in disarray from the quick travel from the other room.

"Diana, what…" Zatanna tried to speak despite the nausea she was feeling at having been moved so quickly.

"Zatanna, work with Raven and get them out!" Diana shouted, moving back towards Clark as a mystical field that emanated from the two of them began to envelop the room in purple light.

Watchtower Hallway, 10 seconds to go…

"Take care of my children, make sure they are safe" Bruce spoke softly, knowing that both of them could hear him, and he knew they would be off saving who they could. Then he turned to the Watchtower remote computer next to him and pressed the button that would activate the data dump and protect the years of intelligence that had been gathered over the years through their various battles. It took less than the remaining seconds left, but it was worth it.

5 seconds to go…

"Wouldn't want someone to battle with Bane and not know how to take him out" Bruce chuckled to himself. He was sacrificing his life to protect his family, all of them.

"J'onn it was an honor" Bruce said out loud as the last seconds ticked by.

"The honor was all mine Batman. We saved as many as we could" J'onn said, his last thoughts on his friends that had taken him in when he had landed on Earth.

"That's all we can do J'onn, that's all we can do…" Bruce said, closing his eyes and imagining his wife and children growing up, safe and protected with their family.

1 second to go…

"How many seconds to go Diana?" Clark asked, just as he began to feel the rumble throughout the station, his voice breaking as he heard the screams of those still remaining all around the station.

"Just one my love" Diana responded bitterly, turning and holding her Clark tightly to her chest.

"That's all we ever needed" Clark said, smiling briefly, before turning and wrapping his cape around both of them tightly.

"Will it hold together?" Diana asked, her tears flowing as she looked into his eyes, still able to make out his perfect cerulean orbs in the reddened darkness around them.

"It does not matter, we are together, and that's what matters" Clark smiled, looking back at her, knowing that whether it was now or a thousand years from now, Diana's face was the last image he wanted in his mind before the end.

"Yes Kal, it is, it truly is" Diana responded, moving his persistent forelock of dark hair to the side, and kissing him deeply, closing her eyes, and waiting for the fire to envelop them.

"We were happy in the end" Diana and Clark both thought to themselves, their minds joined together as one. Together and in love one last time.

No time left…

Some Author's notes:

Cliffhanger!

Yes, the story is back! Figured I owed you two chapters in as many days after my extended absence. Thank you all for reading the story so far. I hopefully will get this completed before the end of the summer.

It seems I needed the DC Rebirth debacle to give me the energy to break through the writer's block that I had with this story!