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I'm Energy In DC: 166 The Last Stand 3
🕑 Added 2025-02-01 17:05:08 +0000 UTCAlright. This is it, the last (or second to last) chapter of this book.
I say so because I was thinking of adding an Amari Finally Meeting the Presence chapter as the finale.
Which will explain a few things.
Let me know what you think.
....
The sun slowly released its last rays.
On the shoreline,
Barry’s mind raced, the weight of the words pressing down on him like a physical force. He needed to kill someone. Not Amari but kill nonetheless.
It wasn't him, it wasn't his nature. He wanted to refuse, but it immediately popped up.
He thought of Ollie, of Victor, of Diana. He thought of the countless lives that had already been lost, and the millions more that would be if Darkseid succeeded.
If the Earth even survived that, the loss would, without a doubt, be too great. They had faced Darkseid before. He would definitely need to travel back in time. Use flashpoint, to prevent such the massive tragedy that would follow.
The Justice League wasn't capable of dealing with this threat. Not before, not now. From what John showed him, it wouldn't matter either way.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Amari isn’t evil. But he’s not right, either. He’s a force of nature. And maybe… maybe this is the only way.
When he opened his eyes, they were filled with determination. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll reset the timeline. But you’d better be right about this. If this doesn’t work… if more people get hurt because of this… their blood is on your hands.”
Constantine gave a grim smile. “Trust me, mate. My hands were bloody long before you showed up.”
“And more people won't have to die. Just the one.” He didn't get much response from Flash, though.
“Alright then, let's get you your metaphysical boon then …". Constantine said, feeling the atmosphere.
Then, he moved his hands together in weird ways, creating a complex glowing pattern with numerous symbols no larger than the size of his palm.
“.... Just leave that to John. Nothing much really. Just a simple little guidance spell ….”. He thought while carrying the magic symbol and placing it on Barry's chest.
Following which, he placed his arms back in his pockets.
“... You'll run off to when and where you need to be. Built in G.P.S, can't miss it”.
“Right”. Barry uttered, feeling odd all over.
John's brows narrowed. Sighing, he turned and waved his hand.
“Alright then, off you go. Haven't got all day”.
The Flash closed his eyes, then walked to the line shoreline. He squatted, in the classic running posture of an Olympic runner.
'… There we go. Where you need to be … To save us all ….'.
Under John's gaze, flashes of lightning crackled in on his body.
Then ….
ZOOM!
A shockwave blasted outward, whipping Constantine’s coat as the wind howled. A red streak of lightning carved across the water, splitting the horizon.
Constantine exhaled, hands in his pockets. He muttered under his breath, watching the portal swallow Barry whole.
'Let’s hope you’re fast enough this time, mate.'
Then, a white explosion of light swallowed the whole world.
The instant Barry crossed the threshold, everything blurred. The ocean, the sky, even the ground beneath him—all melted into streaks of color, sucked into an endless tunnel of light.
The Speed Force roared around him, a storm of impossible motion. Time fractured and twisted—he could feel it pulling at him, whispering in a voice both familiar and alien.
“Faster.” “Slower.” “Stop.” “Go.” “Too soon.” “Too late.” “Just right.”
Barry clenched his jaw. He knew this feeling. The raw, terrifying power of time bending to his will, the endless possibility of every moment he had ever lived—or would live—collapsing into a single point.
Constantine's spell burned on his chest, guiding him like an unseen hand. He wasn’t just running through time—he was being pulled. Forced toward a moment the universe itself had decided he needed to reach.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Where am I going?”
The answer came as flashes—glimpses of reality bleeding into the Speed Force.
A ruined city, smoke rising from collapsed skyscrapers. The sky was dark, stained red by an unnatural eclipse. The ground was littered with bodies—civilians, heroes, gods.
Darkseid’s symbol, burned into the earth like a scar.
Barry’s heart pounded. No. No, no, no—
The next image hit him even harder.
Batman, beaten and broken, held up by Parademons as their master stepped forward. Superman, on his knees, red eyes dimmed, a kryptonite blade buried in his chest.
And at the center of it all—
Amari.
Standing untouched. Unfazed. Watching.
Barry felt a cold dread crawl up his spine. He knew that stance. That expression. A calm, methodical patience—like someone looking at a chessboard, calculating the next move.
The next moment, the gaze shifted. All Barry felt was a piercing lock on him as he peered through time, frightening the scarlet speedster to the point he almost fell into the wrong Time point.
“What the hell happened there?”
The vision shattered.
Barry gasped as the Speed Force twisted violently. The tunnel of light around him fractured, splitting into countless roads, countless possibilities. Each one led to a different time, a different future.
One stood out.
A glowing red path, wreathed in lightning.
The spell on his chest burned hotter, yanking him forward.
Barry gritted his teeth. “Alright, John. You’d better have been right about this.”
With a final push, he surged forward—into the red, into the unknown.
And then—
BOOM.
The world snapped back into focus.
The moment Barry Allen emerged from the Speed Force, he knew he was in hell.
The sky above him was a roiling mass of fire and shadow, casting an ominous red glow over the world of Apologies. The air was thick with the stench of burning metal and something worse—something ancient and rotting. Towers of obsidian and steel stretched into the sky, their jagged spires pulsing with dark energy. The ground beneath his feet was cracked and lifeless, the remnants of a world that had never known peace.
If he didn't know where John was sending him to, then he would no doubt mistake this place for hell.
In the infinite Multiverse, there was only one place that could pull off that look.
Apokolips!
Looking at the new world he had found himself in, Barry took a deep breath.
His body disappeared, forming a lightning streak that raced through the planet.
The guiding spell burned against his skin like an unseen tether, pulling him forward. He didn’t question it. He ran.
Lightning crackled in his wake as he zigzagged through the nightmarish landscape, his feet barely touching the ground. Shadows shifted around him—monstrous shapes, glowing eyes, snarling teeth. Parademons. Dozens of them.
The sentries, guards, the patrols, none of them got close.
As the fastest man alive, he could guarantee this much. Wherever he passed, his presence would be long gone before they could process it.
His only goal was to follow the feeling guiding him like a star in the dark night. Then do what needed to be done when he got there.
Or so he thought, however. The scarlet speedster failed to notice that wherever he passed, the living organisms there, be it Parademons or lower New Gods, suddenly fell to yo the ground.
It was instantaneously.
No pain, no roar, no time to understand.
They all fell, without exception.
The Flash ran, not knowing that he had left a trail of death in his wake. The spell Constantine had infected him with drew him closer, clearly more than the Occultist had made it out to be.
Less than ten seconds later, he arrived before a building.
The pull he felt had stopped.
This was his final destination.
His feet skidded to a halt inside what looked like a war chamber, the air thick with power, crackling with something alive. The walls bore ancient markings, inscriptions of a time before the New Gods. And at the center of it all—
A crib.
Barry’s breath caught in his throat as he took a hesitant step forward.
The baby inside was large, too large for a newborn. His skin was a pale gray, his features chiseled in an unnatural way, as if he were sculpted rather than born. Red, burning eyes flickered open for just a moment, gazing at the world with a quiet, terrible understanding before slipping shut again.
This child before him, would soon become a cosmic menace. A force so powerful that he would enslave worlds and universes.
The very personification of the word evil and Tyranny.
Darkseid.
Barry inhaled sharply. The conversation with Constantine echoed in his mind.
“.... Your target mate, Is Darkseid.”
“Darkseid?”
“Yeah, The world destroying, reality enslaving, cosmic menace above the multiverse itself. That Darkseid".
“Darkseid is a constant, Barry. A pillar of the universe. His existence alone has a huge impact on the reality we live in today. So much so that removing him would make waves. Large enough ones. Destroy the pillars of a house …".
“... Everything will come crashing down”.
“Exactly. What follows next is reconstruction. With Darkseid gone, the timeline will reset. Everything will change. And the multiverse will correct itself.”
“That's the key mate. Time”.
“I don't understand. How will this …".
“... Affect Amari? Well, think of it like a computer crash. When it crashes, a reboot is in order. Everything in it will be rearranged according to protocol. Procedure … The universe is just like that. It has its own consciousness. Faint but alive. So tell me Barry, what do you think will happen, when it discovers something it can't reset?”
“... It'll … Get rid of it …".
“Exactly what you're thinking. Like an antivirus software detecting an invasion. It will mobilize itself to eliminate all foreign entities. A bug in the code, an imperfection. When that happens, it will be one man against the multiverse”.
Amari's existence wasn't part of creation. The Timeline would change to accommodate Darkseid's death.
Then discover Amari's existence influencing the Timeline which was not part of the rewritten script.
As an external being, The Timeline would be unable to adjust him in any way. In that case, a semi sentient consciousness would simply follow protocol.
Eradication by Force.
“... And you're betting it will win”.
“I am mate. I am. And it all starts, with killing Darkseid.”
Barry exhaled shakily, snapping out of his thoughts, his eyes falling back to the child before him.
His fingers sparked with Speed Force energy, vibrating at impossible speeds. He hadn't done this before. But he knew what to do. A quick strike to the skull. No pain. No suffering.
Just one moment, and it’s over.
John had told him. During the first year, a New God's physiology was at its weakest.
The vulnerable phase. And here he was, 250,000 years back in the past to do the unthinkable.
End this terror to be once and for all.
His hand hovered above the baby’s fragile form.
And then—
He hesitated.
The child stirred, his tiny hand flexing slightly. His breathing was soft. Steady.
A baby.
That was all he was right now. Just a baby.
Not Darkseid. Not the God of Tyranny. Not the being who would one day burn galaxies with his presence alone.
Just a child.
Barry’s body locked up, every nerve screaming at him to finish the job. He had to do this. He had to.
And yet—
He couldn’t.
His hand dropped to his side, and with a single step backward, he vanished.
Barry ran.
He didn’t stop. He didn’t look back. He didn’t think.
He just ran.
---
The silence in the chamber remained undisturbed for several moments. Then, slowly, the child’s tiny breaths grew shallow. Blood pooled at the edges of his lips, leaking from his nose, his eyes. A quiet whimper escaped his throat before he stilled.
Whatever John Constantine had done to him, it wasn’t just a guiding spell.
It was black magic. Made possible by Constantine severing his own soul.
An instant death spell. Capable of killing everything still within human limits. On the original Darkseid, this spell would be useless.
Not now, though. On the Young God Of Tyranny, its potency was extreme.
Constantine knew the Flash. He knew Barry from his world. Hence, he knew that he would never be up for it.
Never be able to bring himself to that level. To harm a defenseless child, no matter what he would grow up to be.
So he made the necessary adjustments. John had made Barry a living, walking plague.
The Flash would never need to go through with it. Just being there was enough. And so it did.
The change had already begun.
The multiverse shifted, the very fabric of reality twisting in response to Darkseid’s death. Time bent, breaking apart and reassembling itself in a desperate attempt to fill the void left behind.
The correction had begun.
And as Barry Allen ran, streaking through the Speed Force toward his own timeline, he felt something change around him. A coldness, an emptiness where there was once resistance.
“... What's … What's happening?”
He thought raising his hand to eye length. It was disintegrating, fading out of existence.
“No. I didn't do anything. No, … No! ….”.
Then—
Nothing.
Barry Allen running in the speed force suddenly disappeared. A white light exploding from his position in the speed force, spreading to all the Multiverse.
......
Back on the beach, watching the white light illuminate everything, John Constantine fell into deep thought about the conversation he had with The Flash.
“... And you're betting it will win”.
“I am mate. I am. And it all starts, with killing Darkseid.”
“.... And if it can't?”
“If it can't?” The man chuckled with self depreciation.
He had asked the Phantom Stranger the same thing.
And now, he would give Barry Allen the same answer he gave him.
“Then it will seal him away. That's how it works. What you can't destroy, you imprison in a place where no one can reach. The Multiverse will do the same. Hopefully, forever”.
Plan A was destruction. Plan B was imprisonment.
Or so he thought.
Unknown to John, however, Plan B was the actual plan. The Phantom Stranger didn't believe that Amari could be destroyed.
Lucifer was Testament to it.
Instead, he was betting that the Universe would be able to seal him away. In a separate dimension, with the laws of time and space reinforced with so much power that Even Amari, who had absorbed all the energy in the Godsphere wouldn't be able to break free.
That was the Phantom Stranger's plan.
To trap him for all Eternity.
So in reality, there was no Plan A. The same way he withheld the truth from Barry, Phantom had withheld the truth from him.
Of course, even if he knew, he didn't care. There was nothing waiting for him after this. The semi consciousness of the Multiverse didn't take kindly to those who removed one of its central pillars before it could even serve its purpose.
As the direct cause, John would be sentenced to Punishment.
He knew this. Thankfully, the Phantom Stranger hadn't skipped on the consequen
ces part.
Even if the universe reset, there would be no John Constantine anymore. No matter what reality, he would be erased from existence.
'… Cheers, lad …'. He thought as the light approached. '…. I hope I see you again one day …'. Then closed his eyes in waiting.
The light washed over, and the multiverse reset.
