The Final Battle (Part 4)
If the device could break the spatial barriers between parallel universes horizontally, then he could modify it further, breaking the timeline vertically, allowing them to reverse everything that had happened.
From the moment the cross-dimensional transport device began to operate, the scales of war had already tipped fully in humanity's favor.
All they needed to do now was find the Flash, who had been imprisoned by Kal-El.
From this point forward, he would give Kal-El no chance to win.
...
Zambia.
Victoria Falls.
The massive waterfall stretched hundreds of meters, crashing down into the river gorge below with a deafening roar.
High above the falls, Kal-El hovered, turning his gaze sharply.
His vision pierced through the African continent, across the South Atlantic, then the North Atlantic, across the curvature of the Earth, through layers of Washington's buildings, until it reached an empty bedroom—its window wide open.
…His Soren was gone.
For a brief moment, panic flashed across Kal-El's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.
His eyelids lowered, and his mind raced faster than starlight crossing the universe.
Out of the millions of possible outcomes, he pinpointed the only reasonable explanation.
In this world, the only one capable of bending Corundium steel was a god.
A white cape streaked across low Earth orbit, cutting a brilliant arc through space.
A sonic boom erupted at the Justice League headquarters as the god of men descended into the League's meeting hall.
His white cape couldn't keep up with the speed of his landing, trailing behind him like a frozen waterfall, slowly settling from above.
He landed directly in front of Cyborg.
"Activate the tracking program. Give me the location immediately."
The god of men lifted his chin, his face chiseled and severe, half of it swallowed by shadow.
—Inside the Superman doll he had given to Soren, he had implanted a global positioning tracker.
Soren would never know that even the Clark he had given him, that beloved doll, didn't have a heart filled with soft stuffing but instead a cold, unfeeling mechanical core.
How could he ever know?
...That soft, gentle Clark had never truly existed.
Victor Stone jolted in alarm.
His mechanical arms twitched slightly in midair as he nervously asked, "He's missing?"
Superman remained silent.
Cyborg immediately opened the tracking program's panel.
Golden lines mapped out a flat image of Earth, and a glowing flare blinked somewhere in the central region of Africa.
Superman glanced at the location, and in the next second, he vanished from Cyborg's sight.
Africa Base.
Soren was being lifted into Batman's arms.
The black-gloved hand reached for the Superman doll in Soren's grasp.
Soren cried out in fear, "Ahh!" mustering all his strength to clutch the doll tightly, unwilling to let Batman take away his Clark.
Batman looked down at him, his steel-blue eyes scanning over Soren's sharp chin and the thin body so gaunt his ribs were visible.
In a deep voice, he said, "Don't forget what you promised me."
Soren blinked in confusion, not understanding the weight behind Batman's words.
He only stubbornly tightened his hold on the doll.
Batman glanced once more at the Superman doll in Soren's arms, with its bright red cape and blue suit, then slowly released his grip.
"Kal-El will be here soon. You all stay in the base. I'll go meet him," he said, addressing the group.
The other Batman, Bruce Wayne, who stood behind Clark Kent, gazed intently at him and spoke, "You knew all along."
Batman looked back at him.
His counterpart understood Superman just as well as he did—whether it was this Superman or the other one.
They were both Batman, cloaked warriors of the night, sharing the same fate of decades spent fighting criminals, under the same dark sky, protecting the same Gotham—
They both knew, in the end, in the desperate and maddening throes of love, what Clark Kent, or Kal-El, would choose to do.
Bringing Clark Kent to retrieve Soren had always been part of Batman's plan.
He had never intended for the members of the Justice League from parallel worlds to be able to defeat the Injustice Superman of this world together—after five years of continuous battle and absorbing the rays of the yellow sun, this world's Superman had grown terrifyingly powerful.
He no longer had any weaknesses—once, a small fragment of Kryptonite set in a ring could have killed him, but now, even trace amounts of Kryptonite no longer affected him.
He was stronger than any Superman across all parallel worlds.
A single punch from him could destroy the entire planet.
He was powerful enough to be a god to an entire world.
—However.
The only thing that could hurt him.
The only thing that could subdue him.
Was Kryptonite, personally gathered by the one he loved.
And the final weapon from the Tower of Babel plan, forged by Bruce Wayne himself, and opened with the help of all Superman's former comrades.
This was the final weapon Batman had begun preparing back when the Justice League was first founded, even before construction on the Watchtower had started.
The Babel Tower Plan had its origins on the very day he first encountered the Angemon in that dark warehouse.
As the Dark Knight, Batman, who possessed no superpowers, stood among these superheroes wielding the powers of gods, he knew he had to prepare for every possible scenario, including contingencies against each of their greatest weaknesses.
He needed plans to kill them all.
And that included himself.
The plan he devised for Superman required a massive weapon that could only be activated with the DNA authentication of all members of the Justice League.
But now, with Martian Manhunter and Shazam dead, Diana having betrayed them to Superman, and Flash missing, he could no longer gather the DNA of the original seven members of the Justice League in this world.
So, he initiated his backup plan—
He used the interdimensional transport device to access parallel worlds, not for any other reason but to have another Justice League from a parallel universe unlock the ultimate weapon against Superman.