Chapter 596: The Devil’s Curiosity

Several hours later, and an entire universe removed from council chambers and command decks, Arthur sat in the sunlit den of his Gotham estate with Raven curled comfortably against one side of him and Kara stretched out along the other, a half-finished board game scattered across the low table in front of them, thoroughly abandoned in favor of an increasingly heated argument over whether Raven had, in fact, cheated three turns prior.

"I did not cheat, I’m simply better at this." Raven said, in a tone that convinced absolutely no one.

"You moved my piece," Kara said, laughing despite clearly trying to sound offended. "I saw you do it, Raven. You slid it two extra spaces while pretending to reach for your drink."

"That’s called strategic misdirection."

"That’s called cheating."

"You’re just upset you didn’t think of it first."

Kara threw a couch cushion at her, which Raven caught without so much as glancing over with her telekinesis.

Arthur, thoroughly entertained, made no effort whatsoever to intervene, content simply to watch the two of them bicker with the easy, unguarded warmth of an afternoon that held nothing more pressing on its agenda than deciding who actually owned the little painted properties scattered across the board between them.

"You’re not going to back me up?" Kara asked, turning her attention on him, feigning betrayal.

"I saw nothing," Arthur said, entirely too pleased with himself.

"You see everything," Kara said. "You told me yourself, you were listening to everything I said this morning, remember?"

"That was a special circumstance," Arthur said, smiling.

"Uh-huh." Kara narrowed her eyes at him, though the corner of her mouth was fighting a smile of its own. "Fine. I’ll let it go.. This time."

Far away, in the cold, silent dark beyond a dying star, a fragment of Arthur that had carried the whole of his intent across the width of the galaxy had already dissolved quietly back into shadow, its purpose fulfilled, its brief, singular existence folding seamlessly back into the greater whole the instant it ceased to be needed. None of it, not one second of the war it had ended had cost the version of him sitting here in this sunlit room a single moment of this afternoon.

"Alright," Raven said, resetting the board with a satisfied little flourish. "Since apparently no one trusts me now, new game. Kara picks."

"Oh, absolutely not," Kara said immediately. "You are not touching anything near my pieces for the rest of the day."

Arthur simply laughed, low and warm, and reached over to steal one of the abandoned snack bowls from the table’s edge, perfectly content to let the argument run its course a while longer.

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Long after Diana had gone, Batman remained at the terminal, alone in the low light of the command deck’s ambient lighting, staring at the final confirmed readings from a planet that, as far as every instrument at his disposal could determine, simply no longer existed.

He replayed the security footage from the estate one more time, Arthur, seated, unbothered, an entire afternoon of nothing more dramatic than a board game dispute, and set it beside the telemetry confirming Apokolips’s total, absolute destruction, two realities that should never have belonged to the same hour, let alone the same man.

’He didn’t even leave his home,’ Batman thought. ’An entire world. A war god that’s terrorized half this universe for longer than written history exists to record. Gone. And he didn’t have to lift a finger himself to do it.’

He closed the terminal down slowly, the glow fading from the darkened deck around him, and sat alone with the thought for a long while afterward, turning it over the way he turned over every threat that genuinely, quietly worried him.

’He became something,’ Batman admitted to himself at last, unflinching, ’that I fear no being in this universe can truly control or comprehend anymore.’

’Including perhaps, himself.’

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The Batwing settled onto the sun-warmed sand at the edge of Themyscira’s hidden coastline, its dark hull a stark contrast against the island’s ancient, sunlit beauty. Batman climbed out first, Diana close behind him, and together they made their way up toward the modest, well-guarded quarters where Grail had spent the better part of the last several days under the watchful eyes of the Amazons.

She was waiting for them before they’d even reached the doorway, arms crossed, her sharp eyes flicking between the two of them with obvious curiosity.

"This is either very good news or very bad news," Grail said. "Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come here in person, Detective."

"I came to tell you myself," Batman said. "Darkseid is dead."

Grail went utterly still. "...What? That’s not possible."

"Apokolips was destroyed," Diana said quietly. "The entire planet. It’s gone."

"That’s.." Grail said, her composure cracking for the first time since they’d arrived. "I told you what you were dealing with. He commanded an army over two billion strong, layered defenses going back generations, Hellspores buried in the crust as a last resort in case anyone ever got close enough to.."

"Your information was useful to us," Batman said, cutting in evenly. "But I don’t think the person responsible particularly cared how many defenses your father had stacked up."

Grail’s eyes narrowed, understanding arriving fast. "You’re saying the Shadow Monarch finally moved against him.."

"I haven’t spoken to him directly yet," Batman said, "but yes. It was him. Darkseid is gone."

Grail let out a slow breath, something between disbelief and satisfaction settling across her sharp features. "So he actually kept his word." She shook her head slowly. "Strange. Humans, being honest." A faint, humorless smile touched her mouth. "Though I suppose he isn’t really human, in the end."

"No," Batman said. "That specific term hasn’t been accurate for some time now."

He let the silence sit for a moment before continuing. "I’m here to fulfill my end of the arrangement. During your trial, I told you that once Darkseid was defeated, you’d be released... I expected that you would mean you’d be staying here for a long time, but I was wrong."

"There’s one thing I should mention, before you follow through on that," Grail said, her expression sobering. "While he’s gone now, another will eventually.."

"Yes," Batman said, before she could finish. "The true Darkseid still exists. Something beyond what any of us could reasonably fight. Beyond our reach entirely." His gaze hardened. "But not beyond Arthur’s. His plan was always to go after the real one eventually. What happened on Apokolips was never meant to be the end of it."

Grail’s mouth curved into something almost like genuine amusement. "It seems he hates my father more than I do."

"He views him as a danger to the universe," Batman said. "A cosmic-level threat that needs to be erased. There aren’t many beings capable of even attempting that."

"I know that better than almost anyone," Grail said quietly, something old and complicated flickering behind her eyes.

Diana had remained silent through most of the exchange, studying Grail with careful attention. Finally, she spoke.

"You’ll be free now," she said. "But not beyond our gaze.."

"I think I’d like to remain here, on Earth," Grail said, "if you’ll allow it."

"Of course," Batman said. "Everyone deserves a second chance. A third, even, as long as they’re willing to earn it."

Grail let out a short laugh. "I just like being on the winning side, for once."

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A Beach, Somewhere Sunnier..

Elsewhere entirely, somewhere considerably warmer, and considerably less concerned with the affairs of gods and monarchs, a man in an obnoxiously expensive white linen shirt lounged in a low beach chair with a cocktail in hand, sunglasses perched low on his nose, utterly unbothered by the state of the wider universe.

"The Shadow Monarch," Lucifer Morningstar mused aloud, entirely to himself, swirling the ice in his glass with lazy satisfaction. "Goodness gracious, Arthur.. Out there just slaughtering beings of darkness left and right, one cosmic tyrant at a time." He took a slow sip, smiling faintly up at the sun. "I do wonder what the Big Fellow Upstairs makes of all this. I don’t recall causing quite this much trouble, in all my time doing the job properly."

He tilted his head toward the water, where a lithe, dangerous-looking woman was cutting cleanly through the waves.

"Maze!" he called out, raising his glass in her direction. "Did I ever cause this much trouble, do you think?"

Maze surfaced, wiping water from her face, squinting back at him with open annoyance. "What?!"

"Never mind, darling!" Lucifer called back, waving a dismissive hand, already losing interest in getting an actual answer.

He settled back into his chair, expression drifting into something more thoughtful beneath the easy charm, his sunglasses sliding down just enough to reveal a faint, considering gleam in his eyes.

"Sooner or later," he said, mostly to himself now, "now that our dear Monarch has gone and claimed the mantle of Death itself, he’s bound to catch a certain someone’s attention. The one who tends to notice these sorts of cosmic rearrangements rather quickly." His smile widened, something distinctly devilish creeping into the expression. "I do wonder what my dear Father will make of him."

His eyes flared a deep, molten red for just a moment, catching the sunlight like embers.

"This," Lucifer said, settling back with obvious anticipation, "is going to be fascinating to watch."

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