Chapter 29

-[Batcave]-

-[Batman]-

Sitting at the large and expensive supercomputer, the dark knight had a frown on his face.

After Dante's most recent growth in powers, he had revisited the Cadmus files they had taken after its investigation.

Superboy's files had barely revealed anything that the clone himself didn't know. Dante's files on the other hand was another story.

They were even more encrypted than Batman's own files. Whatever it was they were trying to achieve, they didn't want anyone finding out about it.

He ran it through a decryption algorithm to find out the file's content…that was a month ago and it had only finished decrypting it a few hours ago.

Looking at the information on the screen, the dark knight's frown deepened.

-[Unknown Location]-

-[Dante]-

"For once we are in agreement, this is unexpected." The amalgam of voices echoed out.

Standing in front of the balance scale, he couldn't help the slight fear that creeped into his mind. 'The lords of Order and the lords of Chaos…'

If he was confused before, he was bordering on terrified at the moment. These were nigh omnipotent beings that he couldn't even dream of matching.

"It seems that the Savage has begun to scheme once again." The voices echoed.

Dante could identify which side spoke due to the fact that the diamonds seemed to glow brighter depending on who was talking. Other than that, there was an odd feeling at the back of his mind, leading him to identify each side.

"Indeed. One who is not of Order nor of Chaos, yet Balance is not your true nature." The lords of Chaos echoed.

"An amalgamation…an anomaly. Unpredictable yet connected to all." The lords of Order echoed in response.

Dante's confusion only increased, not having the slightest clue what was happening. "I don't understand."

"Even you are not aware of your true nature. A tragedy indeed." The Chaos lords hummed mysteriously.

"I don't get it. What do you mean by true nature? Why am I here?" Dante asked, his confusion slowly turning into frustration, yet he was aware that he was but an ant in front of them.

"Though premature, you are nearing the threshold. This is an unforeseen case. We will continue to observe." The lords of Order said as the crystals shone brightly, blinding him once more.

"Wait!" He exclaimed but found himself on his bed, his eyes wide open in shock.

His breathing was uneven as he panted lightly, his frustration building up as his hand slammed onto the stand beside him. "Fuck!"

*Crash!*

The wooden furniture stood no chance against his frustration.

Suddenly, his door slammed open as Dinah rushed in. "Dante, are you okay?!" Her eyes then traveled to the remains of the wooden stand as she reached him.

"What happened?" She asked, concern written all over her face as she made note of his state of being.

"I need help."

-[Mount Justice]-

In the medical bay, Dante laid on one of the platforms of what looked like an advanced X-ray machine.

Batman, Green Lantern, Captain Atom and Black Canary stood beside the machine as it scanned Dante's body.

Artemis laid on one of the other beds, looking confused and worried, not understanding what was going on.

*Beep!*

The scanners coiled back into the machine as Green Lantern and Captain Atom looked through the data through the screen. Green Lantern had also taken a moment to scan the clone with his ring, comparing the data.

"So? What did you find?" Batman asked the two.

Green Lantern turned to him with a solemn expression. "It looks like you were right. His brain is flooded with dark matter."

Dinah's eyes widened. "Is it affecting his mind?"

"We don't know but that's not all we found." Captain Atom showed them the scans of Dante's body. "I'm detecting decent amounts of some kind of energy in his body, brain included."

Green Lantern's ring glowed for a moment. "My ring recognizes it and I'm not sure if it's a good thing."

"What is it?" Batman questioned.

"That energy in his body, that's dimensional energy and a lot of it." Green lantern explained.

Batman's eyes narrowed. "Is it harmful?"

"The effects are mostly unknown but I know that the amount I'm picking up is way above what I believe to be safe." He looked perplexed as he spoke.

"Can we remove it?" Dinah, being the concerned mother she was, asked.

"I'm afraid that's impossible. I'm not sure how but it's already bonded with his body. It's flowing through every cell in him. I don't know what it's doing but I don't see how we can remove it." He explained.

Dinah turned to Batman. "How did you know you'd find something?"

"I revisited Cadmus files. It said that they were attempting to do something with dark matter but it didn't specify. It also mentioned a catalyst but there are still no answers on that front." Batman explained as Dante pushed himself to his feet.

"We're not getting anywhere with this. I told you I need to talk to Dr Fate." He said as Dinah walked up to him.

"Dante, you need to calm down." She was concerned…very concerned.

This was the first time she had seen him so flustered and frantic. He hadn't given the full story but from what he'd explained, it had something to do with doctor fate but then came the problem…

"Unfortunately, Dr Fate is unavailable." Batman said. "I'm sending the team to find him. You will be staying here."

"Not a chance. I'm going." It was already guaranteed that Wally wasn't going on the mission and he was aware that Klarion was after the helmet.

Kent died, leaving Nabu with no host until he took Zatanna's father as his host. He had no patience to wait until then or to allow Nabu to take his own body for answers. For him to get his answers, Kent must live.

Dante and Batman stood opposite each other, neither backing down as they attempted to stare the other into submission.

The room was silent but the pressure was palpable as Batman narrowed his eyes. "Fine."

"Superboy and Miss Martian are already here in the cave. You will wait for Robin and Aqualad before you embark on this mission." Batman said in a stern manner.

Dante could only nod in response.

At her own bed, Artemis felt even worse than before. It appeared that Dante's problem was much more serious than she could ever expect.

The team was going on a mission that would help him and she would be stuck in the medical bay, helpless. She could only grit her teeth as she cursed Wally once more.

Dante on the other hand looked more serious than he'd ever been. Of all the encounters he'd had so far, this was the one that really shook him.

Being thrust into the spotlight of literal gods had set him on edge. Overconfident millionaires and delusional immortals he could deal with but lords of order and chaos…he wasn't anywhere ready to even deal with that.

'We will continue to observe.'

The words of the lords replayed in his head and for the first time since he woke up in this world, he felt fear.