Darkseid is

Infinity Island, Indian Ocean

May 2006

One hour. That is how long Athena and I have been rifling through Ra's documents on the League's structure and their activities worldwide. Based on the documents, the League seems to have a hierarchy with Ra's as the leader of the League of Assassins and the League of Shadows, the elites of the League of Shadows. David Cain is the de facto second in command of the League of Assassins while Lady Shiva is the second in command of the League of Shadows. Still, it seems that Ra's had a hand off approach to the League of Shadows as opposed to his micromanagement of the League of Assassins. I cannot tell whether it is because he trusts Shiva far more than he trusts Cain, or simply because the League of Assassin is far more involved on the world stage than the League of Shadows.

While I read over the League's organisation, Athena elected to go through the League's current operations and judging by her facial expression I presume that they are no better than Ra's attempt to create the perfect assassin. Something she would frown, other times her eyes would widen a bit, and recently I even heard her curse in ancient Greek. Even now her brows seem to be set in a permanent frown.

"Perhaps we should take a break." I suggest to her as I place the document in my hand down.

"Yes, that is a good idea." answers Athena as she stops reading the document.

"That bad?" I ask her with a slight smile.

"It is not that the acts are so evil or malicious, rather I cannot imagine a human of all beings to devise such acts." she replies. "It seems that humanity has evolved not only in technology and other wonderful ideas but also in how to inflict the maximum amount of pain and destruction."

"That is unfortunately the truth." I agree with a nod.

Before the conversation can progress any further, Azula appears in the room with a flash of lightning, while carrying a man by the throat, and she does not look pleased at all. The last time I saw such an expression of rage on her face was when she realised that Ozai has been grooming her to be his perfect weapon and held no love towards her whatsoever. With ease, she unceremoniously tosses the man on the ground before kicking him towards me and most likely breaking all of his ribs on the left side. As the man attempts to get off the floor, he coughs out a worrying amount of blood on the floor.

"Ambrosius, meet David Cain. Father of Cassandra Cain and overseer and creator of that disgusting program that focuses on creating the perfect assassin." introduces Azula as she goes about healing the man before kicking him again and shattering his left knee beyond repair.

As the main screams in pain, I take the time to inspect him. The man stands at six feet two inches tall, possesses grey hair despite his middle-aged appearance, and blue eyes. He wears a black combat pants and boots, black shirt with gun holsters over it and a utility belt around his waist.

"Well, isn't this convenient?" I whisper to myself as the main finally stands up using the desk. "I was wondering whether I would have to hunt you down, Mr. Cain." I tell him.

"But you weren't man enough to, so you sent your bitch instead." says the man with a grin and in between coughs, earning a raised eyebrow from me and an unimpressed stare from Athena and Azula.

"You can stop with the psychological warfare Cain." I tell him. "None of us are stupid enough for it to work. No matter what you say or do, we will not kill you before extracting every piece of information we need." I inform him as I plunge my mind into his and extract every bit of relevant information on the League, all the while making it as painful as I can.

Once finished, I remove myself from his mind even as I feel disgust towards the man for how he treated his daughter. Despite his vile acts, Cain was actually beginning to feel some affection towards her. Albeit five years too late and for the wrong reasons.

"How is Cassandra?" I ask Azula as Cain's unconscious body falls to the floor with a thud.

"She'll be fine. Although she was the only one in the entire facility. It seems that she was the trial run and the project's existence depended on whether she was a success or not." explains Azula.

"How aware would you say she was?" asks Athena. "Did she know and understand what was being done to her?"

"No." answers Azula with a shake of her head. "She didn't understand that everything happening to her was wrong or why we took her father away. She seemed to treat the whole incident as if it were a training exercise and the only reason she didn't attack us is because she read our body language." explains Azula with a frown.

"She read your body language? How well and did she speak at all?" asks an intrigued Athena.

"Athena, she can't talk." says Azula. "The fool made sure that no one would ever talk around her so that she could never learn. She grew up reading people's body language to learn of their true intentions. When we arrived at the facility, it was in the middle of him training her to dodge bullets." explains Azula furiously as she steps on Cain's back and proceeds to break his spine.

"How is Jason?" I ask, changing the subject in the hopes of calming Azula down. As things are, the sky is already flashing with lightning and thunder in response to her mood, and she does not seem to have any intention of controlling herself.

"He's fine." she answers as she takes a deep breath. No doubt Cassandra's situation reminds her far too much of her own back in her original world. "He and Scáthach seem to have taken a liking to another. I wouldn't be surprised if he's adopted by the end of the week. Which reminds me, from now on I will be taking care of Cassandra."

"Are you planning to adopt her?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." she answers simply before leaving with a flash of lightning, it appears that she's learned a new trick that she wants to show off.

"I must also leave." says Athena as she stands. "If I am gone for too long, he will become suspicious. Perhaps we could do this more often?" she asks me.

"Of course." I answer with a smile that she returns before disappearing.

Now that I am alone in the room, I turn my eyes to the still unconscious Cain as he groans in pain. At this time, I have no more use for him. Everything that he knows is now firmly implanted in my mind and the only other use for him I could have is as an assassin. However, I trust him about as much as I trust Zeus. Which is to say, not at all. Besides, I am a better assassin than him and can always train a member of the League to replace him.

So with that thought, I destroy his entire body with an excidium blast before decapitating Ra's and Talia's bodies. Once done I sense the inhabitants of the island in search of Ubu, Ra's al Ghul's most loyal servant. Surprisingly I find him in one of the rooms sleeping. I make my way there easily enough without getting noticed.

Arriving inside the spartan room, I enter his mind for any information that he may have that Cain didn't. Inside I find that Ra's had sent him to rest early with no explanation as to why and a protocol for how the League's next leader is chosen should Ra's and Talia truly die with no hope of being resurrected. Apparently anyone who was once offered the position of Ra's al Ghul becomes a candidate.

Surprisingly, the League is supposed to ask them to take the mantle and move on to the next candidate should the first one refuse. There is no blackmail, no test or, anything of the sort involved to pick the leader. I cannot tell whether it is because of his arrogance that Ra's did not formulate a better plan or simply because he does not care about the League should he die. Unsurprisingly, however, it seems that Bruce and I are at the top of the list of possible successors.

Should I leave now, the League will come to me themselves with the offer. On the other hand, however, that leaves a window of opportunity for any others such as Deathstroke or Lady Shiva to take over the League, and that is a risk I am not willing to take. With the information in hand, I implement a strong mental urge in Ubu's mind to make me the new leader of the League as soon as he awakes and finds out that Ra's and Talia are dead.

Once finished I leave his room and return to Ra's study to set up a narrative of Ra's and Talia being murdered by an unknown assailant. The process is simple and does not take me long to do. I arrange the room to make it seem as if a bitter struggle took place inside by destroying some of the room, leaving sword cuts on some places, moving some furniture around while destroying others and place both Talia's and Ra's decapitated corpse on the floor somewhere that indicates that they fought well but were not enough to defeat their assailant. Of course I cannot leave the heads that have been damaged by my excidium blast as the one that Ubu finds, otherwise that would imply that the enemy was a powered individual with some form of energy attack. As the new leader of the League, I will be expected to find the culprit to kill Ra's and I do not want to implicate some poor metahuman. No, I already have a culprit in mind and he would be one of the most believable to do this. After all, what better way to kill one immortal than with another immortal that is known for behind a savage throughout history.

"*Morgan.*" I call out to her in my mind.

"*Yes.*" she answers.

"*I need help with something, are you currently available?*" I ask her.

Instead of answering me, she simply appears in front of me as if she was always there.

"Why did you not call me sooner?" she asks as she surveys the room. "I could have saved you time and simply done this." she says as she proceeds to return the room to its previous state before my arrival and even placing the undamaged bodies of Ra's and Talia back to their original positions.

Before I can even ask her what she is doing, she hushes me and continues her work by bringing Ra's and Talia back to life.

"What?" I hear myself say through the confusion.

"Just watch." she answers as she proceeds to have Vandal Savage himself appear inside the room and duel Ra's and Talia in a manner that damages the room exactly like I had done previously.

Once Ra's and Talia are decapitated, Vandal goes about crushing their skulls with his feet before leaving the room through the window.

"What was that?" I ask her while I ignore the sound of battle as Vandal fights his way out of the island and the fact that not only is Morgan taller than me, but she's also far more beautiful than I remember.

"That my, my dear, is what a Goddess of Magic can do." she answers me with a smile as she teleports us back to the castle.

"Right. You met Hecate and became a Goddess. Still getting used to that." I answer as I rub the bridge of my nose.

"Says the man on his way to become a god." comments Morgan. "I felt your surge in power earlier." she tells me. "In fact, that was before I became a Goddess."

"Do you hear the prayers?" I ask her.

"I have no worshippers. At least not yet." she tells me as we walk towards the kitchen.

"I can hear the people of Westeros. They pray to me as Gawain, or sometimes as Ambrosius." I inform her as a particular strong prayer makes itself known, asking once again for my blessing in battle.

"How does it feel?" she asks as we enter the kitchen to find Jason sleeping on Scáthach while Cassandra does the same to Azula. "Does it feel empowering?"

"Yes, but the rate of my power increases far more than they should with prayers alone." I inform her as we take our seats at the table with Scáthach and Azula. "I have a theory that one of my domains is War, as such I become empowered by any war or conflict going around the world." I explain to them.

"That is a logical assumption." says Scáthach with a nod.

"How is this going to work?" asks Azula. "Will we become a new pantheon?" she wonders.

"I don't know." I answer honestly. "This is a first for all of us."

"We will figure it out." says Scáthach reassuringly.

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Apokolips, Sphere of the Gods

May 2006

Apokolips, home of Darkseid and his faction of new gods. It is a hellish planet that is named aptly as it possesses fire pits that power the planet and the majority of the population are slaves.

The population is a downtrodden lot, including many kidnapped from other worlds before being 'broken.' The majority of the population are called "Lowlies", a bald and fearful race that has no sense of self worth or value. The Lowlies are subject to constant abuse that ends only with death.

Slightly above them are the Parademons, who serve as the keepers of order on the planet. Higher above the Parademons are the Female Furies, who are Darkseid's personal guard. They are blessed with unnatural strength and longevity and are allowed to develop as individuals. The leader of the Furies is Granny Goodness, who sports the appearance of a matronly old woman while being the most powerful of the guards, and Kanto, who enjoys a unique position as Darkseid's master assassin. The chief guard, Big Barda, fills a third position under Granny as the leader of the Furies when in the field of battle.

Surprisingly, Apokolips is second to New Genesis in technological advancement. With their technology, they are the height of power in most of the universe and are able to devastate galaxies when they choose to use it. Apokoliptian technology is furthermore the source of unparalleled misery in the universe as the planet routinely arms evil groups with advanced technology in order to further its influence and misery across the universe.

Apokolips is ruled by Darkseid as its theocratic god/despot, but he defers most of the actual day to day ruling to his counselor DeSaad, a heavily disfigured, sadistic, and evil scientist and chief torturer of Darkseid.

Currently, the very same DeSaad approaches the throne where Darkseid's massive figure sits. DeSaad stands at five feet tall, possesses black hair and eyes, and an indiscernible body due to it being covered by a black cloak that hides it.

"My liege, the preparations are complete and the other pantheons do not suspect anything." informs Desaad with a bow.

"Good. Begin the assault." answers as his eyes glow with a fiery red of the Omega Beam. "First those insignificant pantheons, then New Genesis, and finally Earth. They will all bow before me, for Darkseid is."