Chapter 66: Finale of Promise (Patreon)

The correct answer was no.

That’s what every book, every cautionary story and children’s tale, said to do when given a Devil’s Bargain.

No matter how clever, or powerful you were, the Devil always collected his due. There were no winners, only those who lost less, those who lost more.

And those who lost everything.

“The clock is ticking, little Planeswalker,” Trigon rumbled. “Or perhaps you need some…encouragement.”

At the base of my hill, the demons pressed in closer, thronging with slavering mouths.

“Adrammelech,” I said. My dragon roared, breathing out a cone of fire that ran all the way to the edge of the cavern, turning a swath of Trigons minions into ash.

I bit back a hiss as the energy from his attack pulled deep on my reservoir. Dizzying. It took all that I was, quite literally, to keep from staggering.

Less of my mana than another spell to sweep the entire cavern, but then, it also didn’t kill all of the monsters around me, and already the gap in their ranks was filling once more.

I would run dry long before hell did.

“If you kill me,” I said. “Raven will die.”

Trigon only rumbled out a laugh. “And in death she will join you here,” he said. “Faust is nothing if not consistent.”

I bit my lip. “Then why even send me back at all.”

The demons crept closer, claw over claw as Adrammelech met them in combat. I held back a wince as I felt his wounds start to mount. My summon was strong, but…

Trigon grinned at my predicament. “It would be a minor setback, the work of a mere century to correct.” He said. For a moment, I was tempted to deny him just out of spite, but then he added. “Enough time as well to ensure that my daughter is made ready for my designs.”

I glared at him, even as Adrammelech was born down and buried under weight of numbers. “I’ll kill you,” I said.

“You will try.”

Then the throng was all around me, blades and teeth and claws reaching inward, pausing just before they would draw blood.

“They will fail without you, little Planeswalker,” Trigon said. “Even your little disruptions were not enough to save them.”

I growled.

This is the part they never mentioned, that when you made a deal with the devil, he always held all the cards.

For an instant, I weighed my life, my free will, I weighed all that I was against the lives of my friends, of those that I’d traveled across the Blind Eternities to find, so that I could keep them safe.

As always, I came up short.

“Fine,” I spat. At once the monsters surrounding me drew back. “I’ll swear to protect Raven from all of her enemies, until my final breath.”

“You will protect Raven from all who seek to harm her,” he said. “Mortals are fickle creatures, I will not allow you to escape through the machinations of an ally.”

I hissed. “I agree.” I said. At once I felt something snap into place, binding the too of us together in an contract. It took the air out of my lungs, as the weight of my oath pressed down onto my shoulders. Not heavy, not yet, but light enough that I could never forget it. My promise would always be on the back of my mind.

“Keep your gifts,” I managed. “I don’t want them.”

Trigon tilted his head looking at me as though he was seeing me for the first time. And then he smiled.

“No.”

Then a massive hand lashed out, catching me full in the chest. I felt the orb of power Trigon had held slam into me, sinking deep into the already frayed essence of my being, throwing me back, my entire body flickering as I—

--broke through into Reality. 

I spun, even as Trigon’s clawed hand sank into the stone floor beneath me.

I was back in the room. The place where we’d been told we would be safe, before Red arrow betrayed us all.

Rage blossomed inside of me, burning bright at the sign of my enemies arrayed before me.

Part of that rage, no doubt, was from the sudden influx of chaos that filled me to the brim, full to bursting to glowing, as my connections to the plane of Order and Chaos were restored. I should have cared.

I didn’t.

Not with the fell power and knowledge of the dammed that filled me in turn.

I felt like I was burning up from within, like a star, like a super nova.

My power washed across the room in waves. Trigon howled as he was pushed back into the portal, when even my strongest spell before hadn’t touched him.

I glanced over my shoulder, catching the slightest glimpse of a fanged smirk before he let the portal snap shut.

And then it was just me, and my enemies.

“I-impossible,” Faust whispered. “You—!”

I allowed myself a dark laugh. “You know,” I said, almost conversationally, “It’s funny that you named yourself after Faust, since you seem just determined to repeat all of his mistakes.”

Wotan raised his hand, energy glowing in his palm. “We banished you once,” he said. “We’ll”

I flicked my fingers.

And all the magic in the room save for mine died. 

There was a moment of utter silence, as Wotan, Faust, and the other mages looked at empty space where their spells used to be in surprise. I grinned.

A spell like that, I didn’t know it, before, but that knowledge offered by Trigon slotted so neatly into my existing understanding of the world. Like it was meant to be there.

I’d spend time worrying about the implications after.

With a wave of my hand, an arc of light washed out over the room. It hit everyone, foes and friends alike, binding them up.

Then, with a breath of relief, I released the bindings on my friends, letting them drop back to the floor, looking at me with a mix of shock and amazement.

Now that my friends were safe, I was tempted to take the villains and squeeze until they popped like grapes. 

“Destiny!” I held back a grunt as I caught a flying Martian. She hugged me tight, her emotions thrumming close against my mind.

Her presence centered me, helping me push back the maelstrom of emotions from the influx of mana. I reached out, brushing my mind against the rest of the team, especially Raven, reaching out into the unknown to find Ritz as well, and give her an embrace with my soul.

She’d broken everyone out, including…

I blinked as the haze of battle slowly lifted from my thoughts.

I still wasn’t…in my body. No, this was my soul. When I’d escaped from hell, I’d expected to snap back into my real body and take things from there, but instead…

“Uh, hi there,” I said. Or rather, my body did.

The moment she spoke, the rest of the team reoriented, moving with smooth efficiency to surround the villains and the entity currently wearing my skin. “So…” Robin ventured. “What’s up with the evil twin.”

I examined my doppelganger, taking in her emotional state, the shape of her soul. With a few seconds, I began to get a feel for the mana she had bonded to, maybe in some equivalent of a ghost limb, except that I was the ghost this time.

All of it pointed to one conclusion.

It just wasn’t one I necessarily liked.

Still. “The only evil twin here is Red Arrow,” I said. With a flick of my wrist, I cast a simple shattering spell on the mind control collar still around Martian Manhunter’s neck. It turned to dust, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. “He let Wotan and the others into the mountain, disabled the security systems. There’s something seriously wrong with his head.”

“I’ll say,” Kid Flash added from where he was poking his erstwhile comrade’s cheek. “He’s not reacting at all.”

“So what happens now,” Superboy asked.

I rose into the air, power circling around me. It was almost a joy to feel how quickly it responded again, after I’d been isolated in Hell. That weakness was something for the future; however, the present had an entirely different set of concerns.

“This little cabal of villains striking from the shadows has gone on for long enough,” I said. “How fortunate that they left several of their associates here for us to ask some questions. M’gann, would you like to take the lead, or shall I?”

She took a deep breath. For a moment, I could feel her discomfort at what I was proposing, but then the memory of being trapped in her own mind rose to the surface, how she’d been forced to watch her friends and loved ones die without being able to stop it, because of the Villains I’d just captured.

“I—I’ll do it,” she said. “Just keep me safe from…any backlash?”

“Without question,” I said, before turning to my twin. “As for you…did we win, against that woman?”

Several emotions flashed across her—by which I meant my—face. It was disconcerting.

Finally, she settled on a laugh. “Yeah, thanks for the support there too,” she said. “Any idea what the whole body swapping thing is about?”

“We’ll talk about it later, as long as you don’t magically become evil before we can sort out the situation.”

She snorted. “Please, like I’d cause trouble now? Don’t insult your own intelligence.”

I gave a sharp nod, before joining hands with M’gann over Wotan’s head. “Now,” I said, “Let’s see what we can’t piece together.”

“Don’t worry,” M’gann said. “I think I learned a few things from Bialya.”

“Didn’t we all?”

Then we delved, and what we saw opened my eyes to a conspiracy that none of us had ever dreamed of.

The memories of people and places, of conversations half remembered and little fragmentary memories that were not quiet perfectly wiped slotted into place between the two of us as we went through the minds of everyone who attacked the mountain.

All too soon, a single thread, a collection of shadowy backers, became clear.

I pulled out of the shared mindscape with a gasp. Beside me, M’gann panted gently, before the two of us shared a glance.

“This,” I began, “goes deeper than we realized.”

As I began to consider my options, I formed my soul into something approximating a human body. With access to all of my mana again, it was simple enough to make something that looked like me, at least externally.

“We’ll have to contact the league,” I said. “Or maybe just deactivate the mountains defense, did the distress call go out?”

Robin was already at the computer. “Looks like it, but there was also a general all hands alert that went out just before we were attacked. I don’t know what it was about, but it got the League scrambling so they couldn’t dispatch any of the heavy hitters to the mountain to see what was up.”

“Something else to figure out. For now, just patch us through to Batman or Red Tornado.”

“Rogger.”

In moments, the caped crusader’s face appeared on the computer’s screen.

He took in the situation in a heartbeat. “Destiny, Robin,” he greeted. “I’m relieved to see you’ve handled the situation at the mountain, do you need any further assistance?”

I looked over at Robin, and he shook his head. “System’s clean, and the mountain is cleared of hostiles.”

“Good. Expect a full debrief once the current situation is resolved. It seems like somebody decided it was a good day to break Belle Reave wide open.”

I searched my memory, Belle Reave was one of the U.S.’s highest security prisons for villains of all stripes. If there was a prison break…I held back a wince, before stepping forward. “About that. M’gann and I managed to piece together the memories of our attackers and figure out who’s been behind this string of attacks, going all the way back to the nanite virus with Dr. Roquette.”

Batman was silent for a moment. “Mind scans are not admissible in court.”

I bristled.

Then he nodded once. “We’ll have to move fast, forward me the information, and I’ll divert as many resources as I can.”

He met each of our eyes.

“You’ve been through a trial, no doubt, but I’m afraid I’ll need to rely on the team once more to spearhead our counterattack.”

“You can count on us.” 

Metropolis

I wasn’t a fan of big property damage, but there was something viscerally satisfying to shattering a skylight in your heroic entrance.

The residents of the skyscraper, on the other hand, looked much less enthused. A dozen laser turrets, plasma gatlings, and a whole slew of mystical defenses popped into existence the moment I crossed into the building.

All in all, enough to pose a threat, if I hadn’t gone in fully expecting every countermeasure and already aware of all of the actually dangerous ones, namely those Klarion had created.

His particular stench of Chaos magic lingered even now.

I still took great joy in shattering the binding circles and using the resulting explosions to slag the metal turrets that were prattling uselessly against my shields.

Generally speaking, I’d advise not using those who’d helped design your defenses in an attack against a mind reader, but then, their operation security hadn’t faltered before this point.

Or maybe I just hadn’t been looking hard enough.

“And you would be…Destiny, then?” Lex Luthor asked as I touched down on the plush carpet of his office. “I do hope you have a good reason for this visit.”

“You are under arrest, Mr. Luthor,” I said. “For aiding and abetting terrorist acts on American Soil, for corporate espionage, human cloning, and finally, for the construction and distribution of mind control technology, all of which carry with them rather severe penalties.”

The slick businessman didn’t even look ruffled, though his emotions showed a slightly different story. “I see,” he said, steeping his fingers. “And I suppose you came with a warrant, or is this just another juvenile act of vandalism you hero types are so enamored with?”

I pulled out an arrest warrant, signed and dated to not five minutes prior. To which he ruefully chuckled, before standing up to brush the dust and flecks of metal off of his perfectly cut three piece suit.

“Might as well see what this is all about then,” he said, waving his hand. Over my left shoulder, I felt the irritation of his personal bodyguard as she was forced to stand down.

“Good choice,” I said. “I’d have hated to hurt either of you.”

“Now, let’s not start with perjury before the case even begins,” Lex Luthor said with a charming smile.

“No,” I said, “that would rather let you get too much of a head start, wouldn’t it?”

Bialya

The riot only gained more and more strength as it approached the palace. I overflew it, Raven and M’gann flanking me, as we used our combined magic and telepathy to throw off the effects of Queen Bee’s mind control and prevent it from infecting the rioters once more.

Turns out there’s a vocal majority of the population that was opposed to widespread mindcontrol. It had taken an afternoon to break enough key officials out of her control to get the revolution started, all the while concealing our presence.

The military would find its weapons and vehicles miraculously malfunctioning, and with not nearly the numbers to stand up against the entire civilian population of the capital city.

“I’m worried about the aftermath, though,” I whispered.

“I asked Robin about it,” M’gann said. “He said that once there’s a new government allowing UN aid, the league will be able to step in directly and help provide supplies and anti-mind control technology directly. It’s not a perfect solution, but…”

Raven said nothing. Her emotions were still a roiling mess, but that hadn’t stopped her from volunteering to help me with this step of dismantling this organization called the “Light.”

“Raven…” I started.

“Just tell me this,” she rasped. “Did you promise to help him in any way?”

“No,” I said. I was sworn to protect Raven, and as far as I was concerned, that included from her father. If Trigon thought he could pull some rules lawyering gimmick on me in the future, then he had another thing coming. “It just—”

“I don’t wan to know,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to know anything he said, or did, or offered you.” She let out a shuddering breath. “As long as you don’t have to help him, then that’s enough for me.”

I shared a glance with M’gann.

On one hand, leaving Raven in the dark on this seemed like it would come back to bite us.

But on the other, what if her fragile emotional state was the trap Trigon had set for me with this deal. What if I told her the truth, only for the knowledge to force her to try and kill herself, in some misguided attempt to escape her father’s reach?

Just like the deal itself, there were no clear answers to be found here.

“It looks like they’re about to breach the gates,” I said.

All I could do was to take care of the very Earthly meddlers before they caused even more problems for us in the future.

As Queen Bee was dragged out into the streets, looking shocked and afraid for perhaps the first time since her own coup, I could only hope that it would be enough.

Pacific Ocean, 8° N by 122° W 

The island had been abandoned by the time the Atlanteans got there.

I’d wanted to see it myself, to make sure they hadn’t missed anything, but the facility I’d managed to learn about had been scrubbed down to the floorboards before the buildings had been demolished by precise charges. 

Now, the fact that there had been buildings at all on a previously unknown and uncharted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean said something in and of itself, but it was hardly a smoking gun, or the rest of the Light’s leadership waiting for me to come pick them up for their prison term.

I’d gone after Luthor first, because he’d proven to be by far the most slippery, and then Queen Bee because if she had a chance to martial the resources of her nation it would have been difficult to extract her.

Unfortunately, it seemed like that meant the rest of the Light had already gone to ground. Oh, I had a list of several other facilities and hidden locations that I’d already turned over to the League, but by the looks of things, they probably wouldn’t have much more success than the initial busts.

They’d even pulled the trigger on their massive prison break plan as a distraction for the attack on Mount Justice. Which means the knowledge I’d extracted about that little branch of the conspiracy had borne no fruit either.

Still, even if it was too early to count our chickens, I think I could safely say that this villainous conspiracy was dead in the water for at least the next few years if nothing else.

Hopefully, it would be the end of this alliance in its entirety, but that would only pave the way for something new in its place.

It wouldn’t do to be needlessly optimistic.

There was a howl of jet engines as the Batplane overflew the island. I looked up silently as it came to a vertical landing a few hundred yards away. Still close enough that I could feel the blowback, while enough distance to be perfectly safe for even normal civilians.

Still just as efficient as ever, Batman.

Too bad he hadn’t been quite efficient enough in moping up the villains to get to the mountain.

Behind the batplane, the air seemed to ripple before the bioship came into view as well, the Martian Technology allowing it to land much closer.

The team piled out, Raven and Ritz immediately making their way to my side even as the rest formed a loose circle waiting for the Dark Knight to make his way across the grassy clearing.

Other me was with them, and the two of us met eyes silently beneath the sound of the surf crashing into the rocks in the distance. There was a charged air between the two of us, like static, waiting to discharge.

I couldn’t place the source of it.

The rest of the team was likewise somber. It was a feeling that had lingered since we’d discovered just how deep the undercurrents from this attack went, and just how close we came to losing everyone.

How we did lose one man, as the clone of Red Arrow had so aptly demonstrated.

“So, what’s the plan, chief?” Robin asked, echoing his earlier words from the mountain.

Batman came to a stop, filling in the last gap in our informal circle. He looked at us all in a slow sweep. “First I must apologize, to each and every one of you,” he said. “Before proposing this exercise, the League took what we thought was every sensible precaution.” He paused. “Clearly, we were wrong.”

The rest of my teammates shifted at this bald-faced admission, before Batman continued. “There are no guarantees, to those of us who take it upon ourselves to shield the world from the predations of the villainous and the deranged, but if we had been more vigilant, perhaps this near disaster, at least, could have been averted entirely. And for that, we are all humbled.”

I let the silence linger for a second, before stepping forward. “I suppose this is as good a time as any to announce that I’ll be formally splitting from the team,” I said. There wasn’t any surprise, given that I’d been moving towards this since my return from Skyrim. “Tula can call upon me, should you need my help, but this most recent lapse, has led me to accelerate my plans for departure.”

I met Batman’s gaze head on. “I can no longer trust my safety to the League’s precautions, nor can I sit idly by accepting only League sanctioned missions when there are so many in the rest of the multiverse that still need my aid.”

The caped crusader nodded only once.

Kaldur, on the other hand, stepped forward, offering his hand. Blinking, I took it, only to freeze in surprise when he pulled me into a tight embrace. “No matter where you go, my friend,” he said, “you will always be a part of this team.”

With that he stepped back. “We must walk our own paths, but that does not mean we must walk them alone, or unaided. Likewise, should you need me, call me to fight by your side.

At his words, I felt a template snap into place, a summoning of him, but only a copy.

“How did you learn about that?”

“Raven and Ritz elucidated us about the exact nature of your summoning magic,” he said with a soft smile. “I only hope that it will provide you aid in your travels.”

It was a copy, but then, with the gran grimoire, and Raven’s own method of travel, did it really have to be only a copy?

My eyes felt hot. “Thank you,” I said. “For giving me a place to belong, for however long or short it lasted.

“Hey, don’t be dunking on the mountain like that,” Robin said with a grin, holding out his hand for a high five. “I know we didn’t always get along, but you’re still one of us.”

I slapped his hand, accepting another template.

“Yeah,” Kid flash said. “Gimmie five.”

Superboy offered only a firm handshake, “You helped clear the rest of the mess out of my head,” he said.

“I would have done it sooner, if I’d known.”

M’gann gave me a hug. “My place is here,” she said, as her patter snapped into place in my head. “But…thanks for being my first girl friend on Earth.” She gave a big smile. “You better remember to call.”

“Multiverse sounds fun,” Artemis said. “but…”

“I understand,” I said, pulling her into a hug as well. “You have people here.”

She swallowed once, nodding.

“If you ever need my help, I’ll be here,” I said. “Even if you just need someone with super strength to move your couch.”

“Hey that’s what Superboy is for!”

Tula giggled as she stepped forward, clasping my hands as her template snapped into place. “You’ve taught me so much about magic, and we have only known each other for a few short weeks.”

“I learned a lot as well,” I said.

She only shook her head and laughed. “You must promise to visit Atlantis in the future, so you can see what advancements we have made with your knowledge.”

I nodded, and she stepped back. Leaving only two.

I glanced at Raven and Ritz, only for the latter to laugh. “What, did you think we weren’t going to come with you, you dummy?”

Raven huffed, crossing her arms. “Someone has to keep you out of trouble,” she said as the two of them both stepped closer to me in a show of solidarity.

With that, a clear divide formed in the team, between those who would leave and those who would stay.

What was the old line, parting was such sweet sorrow?

Then the other me stepped forward. “I still didn’t get a chance to thank you, for bailing me out,” she said. “I was literally dying before your body swamp mojo came along.”

“Yes, well, I wouldn’t be so sanguine about this whole thing, if you weren’t fronting the cost of an entire replacement body.” I said.

I was mainly energy at this point, so really, what was a few limbs between friends?

She laughed. “Yeah well, we’ll figure it out. It’s the least I can do, like, really.” She reached out her hand. “Let’s get down to it. This time, I’ll lead the way.”

I grinned. “Don’t we always?”

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A/N: And so ends the Young Justice arc. As always, I hope you enjoy it, and that I did the ending justice. I feel like there maybe wasn't enough smashing and bashing at the end there, but I tried to make up for it with an extra dose of waff.

Thanks for reading!