White Knight-Batman SI (Patreon)

Chapter 39

BRUCE WAYNE

“You are too late,” the words of the man who had put the whole of mankind on the brink of extinction cut across the room like a fine blade.

Capturing Lex Luthor had not been easy. The man was hidden inside a secret base surrounded by hoards and hoards of parademons. Yet they knew it was necessary to bring the man who had betrayed humanity to heel. They needed to capture him, to get intel on what he knew.

And it seemed as though the man had been expecting them, and as they entered his compound after a gruesome battle with the parademon hoard, they found him sitting there in the middle of a desolate room.

The bald bastard, the man who had doomed humanity, killed not only the Kryptonian boy named Clark Kent but also played a part in his brother’s death and sat there sipping his wine as he looked at them with a smile.

“I expected you all quite early,” he added as Wonder Woman and Selina both stilled beside him.

He scanned the room, and it was alien tech, the kind he had not seen until today.

“What do you mean?” he asked, and he looked at him.

“It surprises me that it took you so long to find me, Mr Wayne,” he added, sending a chill down his spine.

“Especially after your own brother spent quite some time trying to search for me, hindering me in my service to the Great Lord,” he added, seeing Selina stiffen at that.

“It was why you had me kill him,” Diana added, angry and hurt as she gripped her sword tightly.

“Indeed, and what a marvellous job you did. Your service to my master is greater than any. Should you bow down, he would reward you like no other,” he offered.

“I would rather die than bow down to the likes of Darkseid,” she snarled as the bald man stood up.

“Then you are a naive Amazonian,” suddenly, another voice cut in, and Bruce saw the dark, broken mirror behind Luthor morph into a humanoid shape.

“Master,” Lex spoke as he looked behind him, yet was ignored.

“You!” Diana got angry, perhaps recognizing the figure.

“De’Saad,” he added, recognizing those features as well.

“It seems to me that your time has run out, humans,” he began as he talked them through this magical construct.

“Master, help me! Bless me, take me away!”

“Silence, human!” De’Saad spoke as Lex’s body froze up.

“B...”

“Do you really think yourself consequential? You fool, you were but a mere pawn!” and with that, Lex Luthor dropped to his knees, shook and full of disbelief.

“And now you have served your purpose!”

“ARGH!” and with that, he fell down, clutching his head and screaming as De’Saad turned to face them once again as Lex Luthor’s screams rocked the whole area.

“Your struggle, while commendable, is futile. Humanity has reached the end of its time,” he declared as his fiery orange eyes gleamed.

“Without the Kryptonian and the Balancer, you stand no chance against us. You survived last time because of Stephenwolf’s mistake. But believe me, no mistake shall be made this time,” he declared.

“My Master approaches you as we speak and shall reach your planet in a week,” and they all stilled at that declaration.

A week. That was not enough time.

“And this time all shall bow before him....” and at his words, Diana jumped from her place, racing across the air as she swung her blade at Darkseid’s right-hand man.

“Or be removed from existence.”

BOOOM!

And with that, the magical transducer was blown away; only a small part of it remained, showcasing the face of Darkseid’s accomplice’s face smiling at Diana.

“How does it feel, Amazonian?” he asked as the figure’s face began to distort.

“To know that you were the one who doomed this world,” and with that, he went away even as Lex Luthor continued to scream.

“Master! Master!!!!”

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And with that, they stood there in a clearing filled with screams, with the knowledge that unless they were able to do something, humanity would end in seven days.

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“We have to do something!” Allen spoke worriedly as they gathered in his cave once more, their hopes and dreams broken as they realised the futility of the situation they faced.

“And what would that be!” Selina chided in from the side.

“You heard him yourself. The only person who could effectively give us a chance against Darkseid was this Kryptonian and Thomas and both are dead!” she added as she looked towards Diana who had a grim expression on her face.

“But we have to try, we were able to repel him once. We coul...”

“And at what cost!” Selina asked, reminding them all of the comrades they had lost, of the sacrifice it had taken to live another day.

And as they argued, Bruce busied himself running various tests; they had recovered what had remained of the Kryptonian boy murdered by Lex Luthor, and it was not much. Yet his genetic material may be the only key to their solution, and the more he stared at the screen and the sheer absurdity of these alien genetics, going through his own and the research he had taken from Luthor, the more it bamboozled him.

“We cannot just give up!” Diana spoke, as everyone looked at her. The futility and hopelessness was palpable, as Selina scoffed.

“Well, you should have thought of that before murdering the one person who could have saved us,” and with that, she turned away.

“I am out of here, and I am taking Marth...”

“Wait,” he spoke up for the first time, a small semblance of hope bubbling inside him.

Everyone in the room turned to face him as he continued.

“I believe there might be some hope for humanity,” he added, making Selina frown.

“And what is that, though you better not say fighting together,” she warned, and he shook his head.

“No, I am talking about this,” he said as he pressed the hidden button on his desk. A pod emerged from the ground, making everyone frown.

“After looking at Luthor’s research and combing it with some of my own, I believe there is one way that humanity may survive this,” he added as everyone’s eyes widened upon seeing the preserved body of his brother Thomas.

“Him,” he added.

“But he is dead,” Allen added as he took a small step toward the pod.

“So, all we need to do is to bring him back to life.”

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A smaller chap, but do not worry you will be getting a Dune chap today as well.