CHAPTER 22:

"This is the way the world ends,

Not with a bang, But a whimper"

T.S. Eliot

"There's nothing we can do? I know I keep asking this, but..." Dick clenched his fists.

"I understand, son," Tathenniel said. "It's hard to watch the ones we love in such trouble."

"Not in trouble," Dick said. "Destroyed."

"We're nearing the end of the timeline, which, by itself, gives me cause to worry," Tathenniel said. "Look."

Two armies faced each other in front of the ruins of Bludhaven. Wonder Woman, backed by other Female Furies, stood in red armor and a red mask. Behind her massed a thousand Justifiers in iron masks with matching weaponry, a howling mob with glowing red eyes behind them.

Next to Wonder Woman stood a tall man in a black cape and cowl with glowing red eyes.

Facing them, Superman led a mixed army of Earth's superheroes and humans, looking weary but determined. Dick spotted Robin in the ranks, with Arsenal on one side and the Titans on the other. It gave him a little bit of comfort to know that his little brother still had friends to support him.

Superman spotted Batman in the enemy host and signaled for a parley. Batman strode forward across the broken dirt to meet Superman in the center. Dick saw Tim start and begin to move forward, before being hauled back by Arsenal. Good. Someone was looking out for the kid. Roy knew that something was wrong if Bruce was on the wrong side.

The image honed in on the two heroes at the center of the field.

"Bruce! What's happened to you?" Superman demanded.

"I am Darkseid," Batman replied. "All are equal in Anti-Life. I am here to give you a chance to embrace the Anti-Life Equation and be free."

"Free? No! It's tyranny, Bruce! You know better than this!" Superman said.

Batman smiled. "I'm at peace, a kind of peace I've never known. I take it that your answer to my offer is 'no', then?" He reached behind his back and pulled out a gun that had been holstered there. Batman's gaze faltered, the glowing red in his eyes flickered. His hand, pointing the gun at Superman's chest, faltered.

"You don't want to hurt me, Bruce," Superman said. "Fight it! You, of all people can overcome this." He reached out his hand. "Give me the gun, Bruce. Come back to us."

Batman visibly fought against the invader that possessed him. But the flickering in his eyes slowed and then stopped until his gaze showed a steady red glow. "There is no escape from Anti-Life..." he said triumphantly, although Dick thought he read sadness in his eyes.

"It won't make any difference," Superman said, striding forward. "I'm immune to radion in any case."

Batman fired, hitting Superman square in the chest. As green fire began to envelope the Man of Steel, Batman said, "I know. But not to a kryptonite bullet."

Seeing Superman down, the superheroes charged forward and the battle was joined.

"It's as I feared," Tathenniel said to a Dick Grayson shocked into silence.

"How...? How could he do that? Clark was his best friend..." Dick asked in a broken voice. "He's known Clark for years..."

"It wasn't him. He was the tool of Darkseid," the angel said heavily. He sped up the images in the column. "So. Let us watch the dominoes fall."

They watched as the battle turned, first for one side, then the other, until finally, Darkseid's forces charged over the bodies of the heroes, Batman in the lead. Those heroes not killed were forcibly assimilated into Anti-life. Dick watched as Batman lifted Tim by the cape and forced him to submit to Anti-Life. They didn't get Roy. He went down fighting and didn't rise again. He turned his eyes away from Donna, Garth and the surviving Titans with glowing red eyes.

The unchanged humans were hunted down by the helmeted Justifiers and forcibly brought into Anti-life. Those who were immune were summarily shot. A few, a very few humans eked out a bare existence like rats in the walls of a derelict building. They hid and scuttled out when they could to find food and water.

Soon, gravity began to be affected by Darkseid's presence. Dick remembered that at Darkseid's heart was a hellish black hole. As gravity bent, so too did time and matter. Reality warped. Time sped and slowed in the red light of a destroyed world. Eventually chunks of other universes already destroyed began to fall, as well as the bodies of the strange people and creatures that had inhabited them.

He'd run out of tears to cry for his world and his family. With dry, sore eyes, Dick Grayson, once called Nightwing, saw the JLA Watchtower break into pieces in orbit and burn up on reentry. Four Green Lanterns hovered outside the red planet that Earth had become, helpless. They had used up all the power in their rings. There were no more defenders left.

One by one, the stars went out as Darkseid spread and merged with the planets Granny Goodness had appropriated, until all was one in Darkseid. In the center of the maelstrom sat a black hole. First it was tiny, then it grew in size as it ate time, matter, and whole universes.

At last, Dick and Tathenniel were left floating in an inky darkness. The planet had disappeared. All that was left was the column and they, themselves. "Where..." Dick cleared his throat. "Where are the stars?"

"Gone," the angel said softly. "All gone. Fifty two universes. An untold number of galaxies, destroyed. Sucked into the singularity at the heart of Darkseid. And with them, all the people who lived, loved, fought, prayed..."

Dick asked. "How... how did this happen?"

"You died, my son. This is the result," Tathenniel said. He flicked his hand and suddenly they were standing on the green, sunlit grass again. "We had originally thought that Superman would fail after Conner's death and that your death would have less effect on the multi-verse. You were, after all, merely the protégé of Batman, and not of Superman, the central figure in this war. We were wrong. Without Batman to shoot the fatal bullet into Darkseid, the god was not weakened unto death, allowing the Flashes to lead Death himself to Darkseid. As Darkseid's tool, Batman never shot Darkseid.

"At full power, Darkseid sent Batman to shoot Superman. Without a Superman to rally the supermen of the various Earths, there was no effective defense of the multiverse. Most importantly, with no Superman to build and power the so-called Miracle Machine, the Multiverse must fall. In the other timeline, where Conner dies and not you, the final crisis will still be a near thing, but a strong Batman and Superman will bring about a victory." The angel paused and mopped his forehead. "I am so sorry, Dick. You have to go back. You must live," the angel said, with compassion in his eyes. "Everything depends on it."

"Where are you sending me? What part of the timeline?" Dick asked, remembering the ruins of Bludhaven.

"You will return the instant before you were hit by Alexander Luthor's power bolt. Alas, you must experience the pain again, but be assured, you will survive. Conner Kent will be the sacrifice, not you. I am sorry, Dick. All I can promise you is much pain and much adventure." The angel smiled. "And a great deal of love."

"And there's no way to prevent Conner's death? None?" Dick asked.

"None," the angel said firmly. "And now, you must go back to your life. Farewell, Richard Grayson. I will see you again."

Before Dick could ask to say goodbye to his parents, he was swept up in a white wind that rolled and buffeted him until it finally planted him on a battlefield. He heard his own shout, "Batman, look out!" and saw Batman's horrified expression as he called out "Nightwing!" and heard Robin's "Ohmigod!"

The next instant was filled with a white-hot fire exploding in his chest. So much for the Kevlar/Nomex weave, he dimly thought as the scorching smell of his own flesh burning assaulted his nose and he let out a scream. So, this is it, huh? was his last coherent thought before the darkness took him away.

He felt himself being lifted in someone's arms. Through a haze, he saw Wonder Woman's face. "Where are we taking him, Mid-Nite?" she asked.

A blurry Dr. Mid-Nite swung in on a line and said, "Someplace safe."

Look at them. Trying to save me, Dick gave an ironic thought to his situation. His chest no longer hurt and he knew that was bad. Any burn that deep had destroyed nerve tissue.

The next time he swung into what he recognized as consciousness, he saw Dr. Mid-Nite leaning over him, pulling off the ruins of his Nightwing uniform. Still didn't hurt. What was the man saying? "Stay with us, Nightwing!" And then he saw an anxious Babs at the end of the bed, pushing herself closer.

He remembered the grassy field and his parents. Something had clearly gone wrong with Tathenniel's plans. I don't mind dying, but, Babs...I'm sorry I won't be there for you. He shakily reached out his right hand to her and closed it over hers. He'd have some words with Tathenniel when he saw him again. Maybe they could still make some changes on that negative timeline...He let his eyes begin to close, surrendering to the inevitable.

Barbara's voice interrupted his reverie, sharp with anger. "Come on, Dick. You're a fighter. Fight! For us! Fight...for me...!" Her voice faded away into the darkness.

He was suddenly angry himself. I can't let it end like this! I can't let her down again. He started to fight, determined to find his way back to her. Instead, he opened his eyes to an empty...morgue? He felt fine. When he looked down, his Nightwing uniform was whole, without any damage. Where is she? Where did they take her? He started running down a tiled hallway lined with drawers. She was here, somewhere. He had to find her.

A gruesome Batman clone with burning red eyes crawled up to him from one of the drawers and lisped, "She's where she belongs, Dick! She is with us!"

Nightwing sprang back in horror and saw that the end of the hallway was torn away, showing a red sky. He was in Bludhaven and Darkseid had taken the world. He backed away and was grabbed by a mummified Deathstroke. "And she wants you to join us, kid!"

The Batman clone grinned and put him in a chokehold. Dick smelled the odor of corruption rising from the two zombies that held him. He began to struggle, then noticed a third zombie approaching.

"Where is she?!" Dick demanded as the third long-dead body towered over him, red eyes glittering. Ra's al Ghul.

"Welcome to Hell, Nightwing!" His voice sounded like dry, dead leaves whispering across a tomb.

Hell. Well, Tathenniel had as much as threatened it after all his interference. Didn't matter. Babs needed him. He threw the Batman clone off easily and stomped Darkseid into a dozen dry pieces. "You can't escape us! You can't save your girl!" Ra's whispered and lunged for him.

Dick leapt away from the Batman clone's clutching grip and took Ra's down with a kick. "Maybe not. But-I'm sure gonna try!"

When he landed, the three zombies were unmoving pieces on the floor. Nightwing straightened up, determined to find Barbara. As he turned, he saw the face he'd hoped not to see.

A brightly smiling, very alive Simon Hurt, still dressed in Thomas Wayne's bat-costume, blocked his way. "You'll fail her, Grayson," he said confidently. "Just like you failed Bludhaven!"

Dick froze as Hurt moved in on him. He knew that Hurt was different. He'd even managed to manipulate Bruce. Dick got angry again. "That's the way you work, isn't it? You play on your victim's self-doubts and push them into hopelessness. That way they don't fight back, do they?" He moved toward Hurt. "You don't like it when they fight back, do you? When the odds are one to one...?"

Hurt just chuckled and moved swiftly away from Dick's gauntleted hands. "You and your 'father' Bruce Wayne are caged in a trap set before you were ever born! Try to get away if you can...you won't succeed. When you wear the cowl, you'll see me again, "Hurt said, grinning, and disappeared.

Alone in the morgue, Dick stood there. "Now what did all that mean?" He set off again. "And I still have to find Babs."

In the distance, he heard gunshots and began to run. Part of the morgue had been refashioned into a target range. A row of realistic-looking Barbara targets stood at the end of the room. And, wielding the pistol, was the Joker.

"Noooo!" Dick cried and ran for him. Joker had already killed Jason Todd and crippled Barbara. He tackled the Joker before he could take another shot and wrestled the gun away from him. "Leave her alone! Don't you dare hurt her again! No! Noooooo!"

"Dick! Dick, stop that! It's okay!" he heard Barbara's voice and felt hands struggling to hold him down. His eyes opened and he found that he was in Babs' place in her bed. His hands were in the process of strangling his pillow and his chest...his chest hurt. Barbara took the pillow away from him and tucked it behind his head again.

"Welcome to the world of the awake. I was beginning to get worried," Barbara said, straightening the bedclothes.

"Babs?" Dick drank her in. She was whole, healthy and, best of all, her eyes weren't glowing red.

"Bad dream?" she asked solicitously.

"Y-yeah, the Joker was..."

"I get that one, too," Babs said quickly.

Dick remembered. He'd been on a battlefield when he was shot. He lurched upright, trying to haul himself out of bed.

"And where do you think you're going?" Barbara said sharply.

"I need my suit. Bludhaven...Bruce..I've got to help..." Dick looked at her and struggled against her attempts to push him back into the bed.

"What you've got to do is get back in that bed!" She snapped.

"But.."

"But nothing! You sustained some terrible injuries. We still don't know the extent of damage to your nervous system," she shouted at him as he climbed out of the bed and began to waver toward the closet.

"I'm fine. I've got to go-the crisis is-"

She hung onto his wrist. "Dick...The crisis is over. I just brought you out of an induced coma. You've been down for three weeks. And I'll have Mid-Nite put you right back into it if I have to." She leaned in and met his blue eyes with her own steely ones. "Back in the bed. NOW."

Dick silently let her tuck him into the bed. Finally, he looked at her glumly and said, "Not the tone I remember from when you used to say that."

She frowned and glared at him. Full strength.

Dick's expression became even more glum. "That glare you gave me. Wow. It was like you channeled Batman there."

Babs cracked a smile. "Maybe you bring that out in people. Ever think of that?"

Dick settled back, defeated. "Ouch. Now you sound like him."

A few weeks later, Bruce stopped by. Dick was struggling with the parallel bars and cursing to himself when he lost his grip and fell, landing hard on the mat. "Dammit, Babs! A six year old could do that routine better than I just did!"

"I don't know," Bruce stepped into the room they used as a gym. "You look a lot better than when I saw you last. You were in a coma, then." He eyed his son from head to toe. "How are you doing?"

Dick picked up a clean towel and began to wipe himself down. "I'm improving, but it's slow. I keep having these damned...muscle...spasms..." he said as a good one hit, doubling him over.

He felt Bruce tuck a hot pack against the spasming shoulder and lead him to a chair. "Relax, Dick. It's a good thing. Your body's repairing broken connections."

Dick looked up and grinned a bit, grateful that he was looking at blue eyes and not red ones. "That's what Babs keeps saying. I just want to know why they hurt so much more than the original injury!"

Bruce gave him a half-smile back. "Probably your reward for clumsiness on the field. You didn't have to take the energy bolt for me, you idiot! The warning was enough. We thought you'd been killed."

"That makes two of us," Dick muttered, clutching the hot pack as the muscle spasm slowly eased. "As a matter of fact, Bruce, I had kind of a weird experience while I was out. I need to discuss it with you."

"Oh? Fighting aliens from space who destroy worlds wasn't weird enough for you?" Bruce said blandly.

"Oh...you have no idea," Dick replied. "Let's just say I was given a warning for the future directed at us both. You see, I was supposed to die that day. It was my fate, you might say."

"Fate?" Bruce asked. "My first impulse is to point out that this is hardly scientific, but ...I've seen and experienced too many things over the years to dismiss what you have to say. Tell me."

"Well, for starters, how would you feel if I told you that the Devil has an interest in us? And a variety of other theological entities on various levels. It boils down to this, Bruce," Dick cleared his throat. He and Bruce just didn't have these kind of conversations. "As I said, I was supposed to have died. The only reason I didn't is because of your projected reaction to my death..."

They talked for hours and Dick confirmed things he had suspected about his adopted father, but couldn't prove: how deeply he felt, how strongly he loved his family, that he felt responsible for his boys' well-being and ached when he couldn't protect them. He also felt that he'd been able to impress on Bruce the importance of preparing for the next crisis, whether Dick was dead or alive to see it.

Later, after a punishing round of physical therapy supervised by Babs, who must have been a Nazi in a prior life, he was able to settle back in bed to rest. It was good to be back. He was looking forward to the yearlong cruise Bruce had planned with his small family. He was beginning to hope that if Nightwing ever was killed in action, Bruce would not let grief stop him from carrying out his mission. "If he does, I'll come back and haunt him, I swear..." Dick muttered. "And I don't care how mad Tathenniel gets."

This crisis was over. When the BIG one hit, he'd be ready.

Author's note: Well, that's it, troops. Again, thanks to Ellen and PJ, my stalwart betas.

I hope you enjoyed the story; please review if you did and even if you didn't. I find it helpful.

Much of this story did not originate in my fertile mind. Much of the dialogue was taken directly from the writings of Grant Morrison and folded into my own work. I truly hope that the seams don't show, but it's hard to tell. They guy is a genius.

A shitload of research made up this story. The entire tale is more sprawling and obscure than Virgil's Aeneid in the original Latin! Here is a limited bibliography of works read, consulted, used for research or directly quoted in the writing of this story:

100 NW 116 et seq, NW Annual #2, Gotham Knights 21, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis Companion, Final Crisis Companion, Batman 156 "Robin Dies at Dawn" part 1; Time Masters Vanishing Point; Batman R.I.P.; Summaries of Final Crisis: . ; theannotatedfinalcrisis/final-crisis/i

Wikipedia Article: wiki/Final_Crisis