This was an idea I had for an arc a long time ago, but as the story progressed, it never evolved beyond being more than an idea. And now it doesn't fit with anything I have planned. Still, I'm fond of the last scene I had in mind, so here it is for all of you.

=====A=====

You'd think that abandoned warehouses in the Gotham docks would be the first place people would check when there's villainous behavior afoot, but to be fair I've been busy. All of the interdimensional portals that had been opening up across the world had finally stopped, and all of the invaders that had come out of them had been put down. Not that we had to do anything more than wait; the insectile things had come out of the portals malformed. Analysis of their corpses revealed that their internals were twisted and failing as well, and they probably would have died in a few days of getting here.

And I suspected that I was about to meet the reason why.

I snuck around to the back entrance of the warehouse, looking about to see if anyone was watching. I knew it was foolish for me to come alone, but I had an idea of what I was about to find. And if I was right, it was going to be a bit… personal. Slipping in through the door, I was greeted by the sight of a run down warehouse with a couple of crates scattered about the place. And floating in the center of it all was the mystery that had been puzzling my team and the League for the past few days.

The man was covered in black 'armor', though really he seemed more like a hole in the world. I could more easily make out the shifting, sharp edges of his profile than any details of his person. He was of average height, with broader than average shoulders. The only detail that marred the blackness was a white scar where the right eyebrow would be on his head.

Wherever the portals had opened up, this man had been there. Killing the invaders and closing gateways before disappearing. He didn't speak, barely even acknowledged the rest of us were there. He completely no-sold any attempts to stop him too, simply countering attacks by warping reality around him. He didn't even show up on sensors, instead either being invisible or just a hole in perception.

Even as I came to a stop a short distance away from him, he didn't say anything. I think he was looking at me (it was hard to tell), but either way it was clear he was waiting for me. So, I said "I'm kinda embarrassed how long it took me to figure it out."

He didn't respond, but I saw the scar arch upwards slightly. I started to pace as I talked. "You don't leave any direct trace that I can scan, but I did notice there was a faint atemproal flux everywhere we confirmed you visited. Which got me thinking about how that little mark," I touched my right eyebrow. "Was a bit familiar. But what confirmed it for me, was that bit of evidence you left behind at the last portal."

I didn't have said evidence on me, so I walked over to one of the crates and opened it up, looking down at the box full of similar evidence. Reaching I pulled out the product of the same discontinued brand that had allowed me to track down this warehouse: a lampshade. I gave the man a look. "It's a bit on the nose." I remarked before tossing it aside. "So, with all that out of the way, one question comes to mind."

I looked up and my voice softened as I asked "What happened?"

After a pause the man finally moved, drifting down to set foot on the ground in front of me. He remained motionless for a second before he… flickered. The black surface disappeared, and I was greeted by my own face looking back at me with a tired expression. "What do you think?" He grumbled.

Although my sensors now worked and I could detect the nanomachines that made up my/his body, he retained his more average build, and his skin was human toned (wearing modern clothes too). I could even see the scar hidden in the right eyebrow, the one I had gotten when I was two. His appearance was pure affectation of course, but why he chose to look like how I used to before I became posthuman was the least of my concerns. I took a breath before I asked "How much did we lose?"

"Everything." He replied, taking a step back and looking off to the side. "Never got the name of the bugs, but the first time around there were a lot more portals. A few hundred or so for the initial wave, scattered all over the world. It didn't matter how many we killed, more just kept coming. When the larger portals opened up and the terraformer leviathans came through..."

He trailed off, taking a seat on a nearby crate. "It happened so fast. Pretty much every government had collapsed in a week, eighty percent of the population dead. The League was killed during that week. The team-" he stopped and started again. "The team lasted a little longer."

"...I'm sorry." I said. I didn't really want to ask, but I had to. "How did they go?"

"Like goddamn heroes." He said, a bitter smile crossing his face. "We had to hold the line while the Green Lantern Corp evacuated what was left of the population. I tried to convince them to let me do it all myself and for them to escape. Naturally, they wouldn't stand for it." The smile faded. "I wish I had been more insistent."

"I think we both know they would have considered the price worth it."

His eyes snapped up to mine, and I felt the fury and pain behind the glare. Fast as it came it was gone though, and he just sighed. "It doesn't matter now. For the past few days I've been setting up Bleed Harmonic Scramblers all around the world. Any of the portals that didn't fail outright were so miscalibrated that anyone going through them would be scrambled down to the molecule. And if I did it right, the bugs will think this is a result of natural fields here on Earth, discouraging further attempts."

My mouth twisted a little. "And you're sure about that?"

He shrugged."As much as I can be. You'll be getting the specs to those scrambles in the event that I'm wrong. By the way, you and the League are going to be getting some emails and packages. The attachments will have all the information I know about the bugs and any future events, but I don't have much on the latter that will be useful. What with the loss of Earth and all."

"Not planning on sticking around to actually tell us about it?"

A mirthless laugh was the response before he said "Time travel is an awful idea. Don't do it if you can help it. If you can't… well, you need to make sure you do it right and actually change the past. Which is tricky, seeing how every method of time travel has different rules to it."

He leaned back and gestured. "Bleed Temporal Tunneling runs on multiverse theory, and I don't care to leave orphaned timelines in my wake. Dimensional Folding creates stable time loops where you can't change anything, so no help there. You can stretch things a bit, the universe has a sort of ontological inertia that 'corrects' itself. Speed Force… no. Just no."

He shook his head and refocused. "Now, a Temporal Manifold Singularity is better in that you can change things, but the changes propagate forward instantly. And if you do something that stops you from going back in time in the first place, which could just be breathing air in the wrong place and time due to butterflies, you'll instantly cease to exist along with the timeline that made you. So, you might be able to make one change, and I couldn't rely on that. But, if you make a Paradox Engine..."

His chest opened up and I stared into… something. It was an endless red vortex folding in on itself. It was a cube with edges twisting in impossible angles. It was a living mathematical formula that embodied the infinite undefined limit that was division by zero. It was-

My mind broke out of the loop it had found itself in when he closed his chest up and continued. "...you can stick around long enough to actually accomplish something. It's not like I can go back; the place I came from doesn't exist anymore."

I shook my head to clear out the mental segmentation faults before replying "Fair enough, but why can't you just stick around here for a bit? I understand if you don't… want to permanently stay here, but with that engine in your chest-"

"That isn't a solution." He cut me off. "It is just kicking causality down the road. With all the changes I've made, it takes exponentially more energy to maintain the Paradox Engine the longer I'm here. When the cost is more than I can make… I'll cease to exist."

"Ah." I said flatly. "How long do you have left?"

"As of this moment? About 63 seconds." he said, his tone one of annoyance of all things.. "To be honest, you're timing could use some work. I had given up on you figuring out the clues and was all set to head into oblivion alone until a few minutes ago. Now all we have time for is overly brief explanations and an awkward silence."

My mouth opened and closed. He was right, of course. Anything really important would probably be in the data he sent the League, and what meaningful thing could we discuss in a minute? After a few seconds of thought, I started to ask "If you have any message to want to pass on to the team-"

"No." It came out sharp, and his teeth grit a little. "They're your team. Not mine. I can't think of them like that. I can't… think of her like that. I can't..."

He trailed off. There was a long moment of silence between us, before I quietly asked "And what about me? Anything you want to say to yourself?"

He stopped, looking at me in surprise. He remained frozen for the longest moment before a hysterical giggle forced its way from his throat. His composure fell apart and he hunched forward, holding his head in his hands as his shoulders shook. "I was just some guy." He exclaimed, his voice hitching.. "I was some programmer who wrote shitty fanfiction on the side… and suddenly I had superpowers and a team to look after. Why? Why the hell did that happen? Why did anyone trust me with that responsibility? What kind of sick joke was it to make me live through this?"

He raked a hand through his hair. "But… I met someone who believed in me. Who came to respect me. Who came to… love me. And the team I was responsible for became my family. And I started to believe I was that hero they thought I was. And maybe I was. But it wasn't enough. I couldn't save the world. I couldn't save them. I couldn't save her. Then I had a choice. I could learn to accept the pain and loss, and move on like just some guy. Or I could erase an entire timeline from existence, and myself along with it, because I couldn't imagine being without her."

He looked back up at me, tears in his eyes. "What else was I supposed to do?"

I didn't have an answer for him. The warehouse was silent for another 27 seconds before the man disappeared, like he had never existed at all.

=====A=====