(General P.O.V)
Dimming stars gently pulsed with dying light from afar.
Floating chunks of rocks devoid of life crashed against each other, sending speeding projectile out.
Energy churned within raw spaces in reality.
In this dreary nightmarish space, an Island suddenly appeared in a burst of speed force energy.
The storm of red and yellow lightning formed around the island like a funnel, only stopping once the entire chunk of land was transported from the present to the end of the universe.
Within the Island, it's inhabitants had barely caught onto what had transpired before disaster fell upon them.
Deadman was flying as fast as he could from his quarters towards the Crystal. He was only a few feet away but could already spot the many cracks along it's form.
"Shit!"
Davian lay inside the crystal, eyes closed and brow sweating as if he was in pain.
(Can't...hold it... back...)
Deadman felt the words resonate deep within his soul.
The statement naturally belonged to Davian who stared at him with a regretful look.
The clashing energies within him reached a tipping point and without the crystal formation to contain it all...
(I'm...sorry Brand. I just killed you all.)
With a catastrophic explosion, the crystal burst apart.
Deadman immediately hightailed it out of there. There wasn't time to even grab Cheshire, he just flew as fast as he could. Without any direction or plan.
Something within him knew if he stalled for even a second he was done for.
It started out weak. A pull at his back. He chanced a look and saw a swirling vortex where the crystal had been.
The explosive wave that rippled out into the Island seemed to stall. Then it collapsed on itself.
The pull instantly tripled in intensity as it begun pulling everything to it.
Then in a reenactment of the previous explosion, a wave of dark Reiryoku that Deadman immediately compared to the Gillian spread out.
(Deeeaaath)
The world turned gray, losing all color and Deadman knew, there was nowhere else to run. Death would reach him no matter how far he travelled.
He could feel it. Davian's Spirit energy had changed. That would only happen if his soul was altered drastically.
This wasn't the Davian he knew. This was the heart murmur in the space between heartbeats.
This was the thing you see at the corner of your eyes.
This was the one sure thing in life.
This was Death.
So he stopped and embraced it.
Infinity Island was instantly drowned in darkness and devoured, then the nearest planet sized masses followed along, then the dim red star weakly trying to sustain itself... everything fell prey to death.
******
At the end of time,
The final nanosecond stretched to it's infinite potential,
Lay a fortress housing the last mortals in reality.
The Fortress was called Vanishing Point.
Vanishing Point was inside a metaphysical dimension that existed outside the normal space/time continuum.
It was golden, gleaming with energies fed into the Time stream; better known as the fourth dimension, from different sources such as the speed force.
Contained within this particular Fortress was an opulent hall that was adorned with all manner of relics from the past.
Superman's cape, Wonder Woman's lasso of truth, Genghis Khan's axe, Einstein's pocket watch, even old Taoists manuscripts.
All these treasures and artefacts that had meaning to different periods of times were carefully exhibited along the walls of the hall.
Inside the hall were the last humans. A group of volunteers that protected the time stream.
They were known as the Linear Men.
Totalling 7, the individuals were gathered around a table.
Two of them stood, deep in an argument while the rest watched.
"Do any of you even understand what this means!?"
Rip Hunter, premier time traveller, a descendant of not only Supernova, a hero yet to appear in the 2ist century, but also a distant relation of Booster Gold, snapped.
Stolen novel; please report.
"You think yourself an expert on all things the past but newsflash, Rip, we've all witnessed the continuum."
The words came from a beautiful blonde woman dressed in a pink and blue outfit.
Her name was Liri Lee, otherwise known as Linear Woman.
She continued,
"This final second is stretched to it's limit, there is no way anyone can reach us here! Not even a speedster..."
The woman who had been speaking was interrupted by a loud rumble.
The city shook, the walls of the chamber cracked before breaking apart.
Linear Woman thrust out her hands, freezing the rocks, then time begun to reverse around the chunks. They rejoined and the wall was restored.
"Well, never thought I'd get to say this but you were right."
She begrudgingly told Rip.
None of them could ignore the feeling of interference through their connection with the time stream.
A temporal displacement.
Something else was here...and it had brought with it Death.
A large cloud of miasma immediately swept through Vanishing Point, devouring all existence.
******
Am infinite distance away, at his Citadel, Time Trapper stood on a grand balcony, hands held upright in supplication to the awning darkness.
"So it finally comes. Entropy...the death of all things."
The wave of death swallowed him as well. He gave no resistance. There was freedom in choosing not to resist.
******
The darkness continued spreading out unhindered. Unchallenged.
The cosmic entities left alive could only watch as the final nanosecond of existence came to a close.
From another infinite distance away, something was stroke awake at the diminishing light.
Something that knew it was time. It's reign was nigh.
In the heavens above and the hells below, the scenes of a destructive battle that had ripped asunder different terrains could be seen.
The battles that had been waged had never truly ended. The struggle between light and darkness never could.
Below all of those existences, in the dark recess of non-existence, the great Darkness Stilled, called forth by a piece of itself consuming everything in the final stretch of reality.
And so the Great Darkness rose up, unopposed.
It devoured gods, afterlives, pocket dimensions, energy dimensions like the hidden forces, the electromagnetic spectrum...
Then entire galaxies and sectors, universes, everything fell. Lastly it turned it's attention to the multiverse.
The end of all things was nigh, and so the Great Darkness gorged itself on reality, a mass of dark clouds that could not be delayed.
All the while it sort out that piece of itself, it could feel.
Not to mean there wasn't those who tried to fight back. It was...amusing to say the least.
However, Darkness death could not be deni...hmmm
And then the Great Darkness paused in surprise.
It had finally found it. The piece of itself buried in another entity. A structure made up of nothing but death energy.
"WHAT ARE YOU?"
It asked the other wave of darkness that had risen up from a different part of the dying multiverse.
(WhAT ARe yOU?✓^€€°)
The question was thrown back at it.
The Great Darkness grew curious as both waves tried to devour one another.
One, death and the other darkness.
Two intricately connected spheres. Yet...they now stood in opposition to one another.
"MOST... CURIOUS. I WISH TO STUDY YOU."
The Great Darkness commented, reaching out it's tendrils in the space between stars to touch upon the center of the opposing force.
In the middle of the miasma of death, purple eyes opened...then a screech sounded out.
The Great Darkness' tendril was immediately devoured.
"WHAT?!"
The End of All things was surprised...shocked even.
Then it became delighted at this curious little thing. There was something foreign within it. Something it had to have.
Something other than it's missing piece.
This energy, this power...
"MUST DEVOUR!!"
The Great Darkness launched itself forward in speeds that defied all common sense.
The wave of death had no function beyond spreading out. So it surged up ready to take on the end of all.
"STOP."
While the voice was not loud, it carried with it an authority that could not be denied.
Then in-between the Great Darkness and the wave of death, a pale skinned woman appeared.
"THIS CONCERNS YOU NOT, LITTLE GIRL."
The Great Darkness said.
Death tilted her head to the side, a lazy smirk on her beautiful face. Looking closely however, one wouldn't miss the deadly serious eyes.
"I assure you, Great End, nothing has ever concerned me more."
The wave of death was heedless, unlikely to listen to reason so it kept spreading, seeking to devour everything.
Only for it to stop.
Death was death.
In ways, he was her.
Connected more deeply than bonds of family would even allow.
Standing in the middle of what anyone would term as eldritch abominations, Death only felt immense sadness for her son.
She could see the boy within the wave of death, twisted upon himself. Pure instinct driving him.
Not a soul reaper, not a full bring, not a human. With his soul container damaged...his other nature came to the forefront.
His hollow form.
Thats why...
"DO YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE YOURSELF STRONG ENOUGH TO HALT MY ADVANCE ALONE?"
The Great Darkness enquired.
"I CAN FOLD UNIVERSES INTO EACH OTHER."
Reality bent according to it's will as new Universes were created and destroyed around them.
"CREATE ANY CREATURE OF EXISTENCE..."
Different multiversal and outerversal beings sprouted randomly.
The looming presence of Perpetua looked down at Death and waved her hand towards the Anthropomorphic presentation of death.
The euclidean space they occupied shattered.
But even with all of that, Death calmly floated in place. None of the attacks could reach her. Her conceptual abilities basically caused death to all attacks.
"My turn."
She responded cheekily.
Holding up her hand, the butterfly tattoo on her arm broke away, taking to the skies. Then it burst into motes of dust that gathered inside her palm.
She turned to the Great Darkness and blew the dust it's way.
The dust turned into a stream of white energy. A Raven cried out and with the cry came an outpouring of light, which drove the Darkness back.
The Raven flapped it's wings, producing star sized beams of power that speared through the dark emanations and creations of the Darkness.
"DELAYING TACTICS."
The Great Darkness commented.
"THAT BOY... CONTAINS WITHIN HIM A SLIVER OF ME. I WANT IT."
The Raven cried out loudly, as if daring the Great Darkness to try.
"Well you can't have it. You can't have him."
Death said.
"And who said she was alone?"
Dream, Death's younger brother stepped out from the shadows of the light cast by the Raven.
"Death has never been alone. Not truly. I know the burden she carries."
A different voice, this time belonging to Destruction, rang out.
He was a tall man with broad shoulders and wavy blonde locks, tied back into a pony tail. Dressed like a lumberjack, he held in his hand an axe.
He more than anyone understood how strong Death's will was. He had abandoned his station, she had not.
"Not exactly my idea for picnic but this seems fun."
Desire stated in a gender neutral voice. Her/his wide smile revealing white gleaming teeth.
And their face was the most beautiful thing to be seen yet...her/his features seemed to shift minutely so that the way he/she looked 1 second ago was different.
He/she was dressed in a long flowing red dress.
Diamonds made from glittering stars adorned her/his neck, going down her/his strong chest.
Her/his twin despair huddled behind Desire, shamefully looking at the Darkness from under messy black hair.
"You will not harm my family."
She whispered, unsure and without conviction.
The last two members of the dysfunctional family had deigned not to speak. Destiny stood infront of and also behind his brothers and sisters.
His presence could be felt, seen, heard but not determined. In his hands he held a book. The cover was made from the hide of a beast that had never existed.
And on his shoulders, was their youngest member, Delirium merely hummed, her hands wrapped around the shaft of a large candy.
Her bright colors contrasted deeply with the dreary atmosphere.
"When you have a family like mine...you're never truly alone. Even if you want to be."
Death told the Darkness.
The message was clear...we will not stand down.