"Grief is the price we pay for love."

-Queen Elizabeth II

********

Was Emma Frost forever cursed to hurt Mikael?

Time and time again, she hurt him.

Emma Frost hurt him when she violated a poor prisoner's mind to gain answers he didn't have.

Mikael didn't care about privacy. He had seen the state Emma Frost was in and healed her after the first attempt by purging the memory from her mind, Only for Emma Frost to do the same thing again, obsessed that he was 'hiding things from her.'

Yet again, Mikael healed her with a Seal, only this time without removing the memories so that the same mistake would not repeat itself. Unaware at the time that a whole new 'Emma Frost' was born in the mind of a Great One.

But in healing her, she hurt him when she exposed his 'fake' feelings, filling him with existential dread for centuries as he fought against love he thought was forced upon him.

Still, Mikael worked with Emma. Confidants. He had let her into his mind. She was the only woman out of ten whom he had fully trusted to act for the betterment of not only himself but also those of the other women.

And Emma had betrayed that trust. Unwilling to be cast aside when he was free, to spend the rest of eternity without him, she had manipulated everyone. It wasn't a stretch to say that Emma had been the single most significant contributor to building the Family and bringing them together in that year of imprisonment on the Island.

All for her benefit.

All so they could present a united front.

All so she would not lose him.

Learning of her betrayal had hurt him more than anything else. He closed off his mind.

He closed off his heart.

For the years after Mikael discovered her plan to oppose the thing he thought they were working toward, freedom, he had been alone.

Nobody to trust.

Nobody to confide in.

For those years between that fateful conversation in Irithyll and his final battle against the Soul of Cinder, all that had pushed Mikael forward was the faint hope that it would finally end.

That it would all end.

That he'd be Free.

Only it didn't.

Another prison cell awaited in the Lands Between.

As much as Emma felt jealous of Melina, she would forever be grateful for the Kindling Maiden. If not for her, for her and Torrent's Company, she feared Mikael would have forever remained closed off, unable to trust or love again.

But Emma Frost was not done hurting Mikael.

Seven weeks.

Seven weeks did the man she loved live in fear of her.

For seven weeks, Mikael knew Emma Frost was the key to his freedom and hated every moment of it.

The fear, the rage, the loss, and the pain.

For seven weeks, Mikael tried to lose himself in the carnage and blood of Yharnam.

He wanted an end.

Yet he could not. Even as he became more and more beastlike, even as his body became drenched in blood, he maintained perfect clarity.

He was fully aware that every beast was once a man like him. Some might have been monsters, but most were simply humans put in a situation by forces they had no control over.

Fear and hope had driven them to this.

They took in Old Blood to cure sickness. They imbibed blood to be strong enough to defend themselves. They communed with the Great Ones because they did not wish to be pawns for beings so much more powerful than them.

Mikael saw himself in every beast he killed.

Was he even the same man he was before making the Deal?

Was Mikael himself, or someone else? Something else?

A simple man who dreamed of flying, who had never held a blade and never threatened anyone's life, had become a man whose victims' bodies would form mountains of corpses.

And what would Mikael become once Emma had access to his very core?

When the woman who had betrayed him so profoundly could rewrite everything that made Mikael 'Mikael' on a whim?

Would he still be himself?

Or just another slave, a meet puppet that wore his face while 'Mikael' was wholly obliterated or worse, trapped within himself, unable to affect the world.

Emma didn't betray Mikael again. She did exactly as he hoped. She freed him.

In that moment, when Emma Frost psychically connected the Avatar to the Dragon, the past to the present, the prisoner to the embodiment of Freedom, Emma Frost had seen it all.

At that moment, when the Dream dissolved, when Mikael gained the benefit of the Defences, and when he was presented with everything he could have ever wished for, Emma saw his choice.

And her heart broke.

Because Emma Frost realized she had hurt him in a way that she could not make up for, no matter what she did.

Emma Frost's very existence hurt Mikael.

She tried to deny it. She wanted to tell herself it was one of his schemes.

A long-term plan against Death, or The Company, or some other adversary.

She had tried to assuage herself that it was just a stopgap, that she could fix things.

The first step was to prove that Emma Frost would have come to love him, even without experiencing his Mad Love.

No matter how much she hated Frost, no matter how much she hated that selfishness, that twisted ego, that demented desire to control, manipulate, and dominate, Emma would put up with it.

She needed to prove to Mikael that they were not chains around his neck, and he was not a chain around theirs.

That his Mad Love was not a mistake.

That he could be Free.

But Emma Frost was incapable of not hurting Mikael.

Her Semblance twisted everything. The manifestation of her very soul turned her plan into ruins. Frost went from a scheming ally to a sycophantic love slave after only experiencing a fraction of an imitation of Mikael's Mad Love.

Emma should have killed Frost then and there when she realized what she had done. She should have given up her plan or put it on hold until she found another version in another world.

But she hadn't. Because every day further reinforced her fears.

She could see it in his mind.

Mikael was living it all again.

The power manipulating him from the shadow.

The repeated failures of plans to gain more information.

The feeling of a noose tightening around his neck.

The paranoia. What was real? Who was making their decisions freely? Who was an enemy?

The loneliness. People he had reached out to, in his hesitant way, disappeared one by one.

The Old Blood giving monsters power and desperate people hope, only to turn them into beasts.

The genuine possibility was that his very existence was a danger to the world. That never would he be able to form bonds outside the Family, outside those who he bound and bound him.

To Mikael, this world might as well be another cell.

Emma needed to break this cycle.

So she continued playing her little game with Frost, trying to push back a truth she didn't want to confront.

And what did she accomplish?

Emma hurt Mikeal again.

Instead of proving that she would have come to love him without his influence, all she proved was that his influence was even more dangerous than he feared.

Instead of Freeing the man she loved, Emma Frost added another chain to his neck.

'Is this close enough?'

'...It's fine,' Emma answered Medea as they stopped well beyond Earth's atmosphere, yet still far enough from the armada of ships circling the planet.

Neither the Dragon of Magic nor the Dragon of Diamond needed to breathe in the void of space, nor did they have trouble seeing the absolute wall of vessels that surrounded the planet. There was enough space between them not to hamper movement in case they needed to take action, but there were so many of them, and so many ranks deep that they blocked out the distant stars.

Emma recognized a few of them from her home world, and the entire ensemble looked like one of those Dyson Spheres that a few advanced civilizations used to harness stellar energy.

Instead of being an energy farm, every army in the known galaxy surrounded Earth with their guns pointed at them. There was enough firepower here to destroy the entire Solar System a few times over.

Their goal?

Well, Emma was here to find out.

Even if she continued to hurt Mikael, she'd be damned if she wasn't at least useful.

Powered by one of his Command Seals, Emma scanned tens of thousands of minds simultaneously. She wasn't lacking for targets, as every ship held hundreds, if not thousands, of personnel.

She quickly realized that most were not ground troops. This was not an invasion. In fact, most of the grunts had no idea what was going on and were following orders.

Following a trail of minds, Emma reached the minds of ship captains. As a rule of thumb, their mental defences were slightly better on average, and without actively touching Mikael, she could not act like their defences were not even there.

Still, she was Emma Frost. She had no problem navigating a few mental walls, even if she had to shrink her focus from tens of thousands to a few thousand.

Again, she didn't get much. They were more in the know than the grunts, but not by much. Most were unhappy being here, side by side with historic enemies and rivals.

Earth had a reputation in the wider universe, and most would prefer to stay clear of it and its crazy inhabitants.

In addition to their dissatisfaction with their location and allies, many captains were on edge due to strict communication rules.

All messages were to be blocked, whether from ally or enemy, except from a ship directly above them in the chain of command. Everything was to be locked down, no matter who it was or what they were saying.

Anyone who violated this command would be destroyed instantly, and no survivors were allowed. They were ordered to stay in place with everyone else and blockade the planet.

Anything that tried to travel beyond the moon was to be shot down by the entire fleet, whether a machine or a person.

Thankfully, Emma and Medea were invisible and undetectable due to the latter's magic.

Still, it meant Emma would have to travel up the chain of command until she found a ship with a more knowledgeable leader.

Thankfully, she wasn't alone out here.

'It's an absolute shame that people don't go around laying out their every plan as soon as I start listening in,' Robin said dryly as Emma connected to a clone spying on a nearby ship.

'If they did, I'd fear for any information gained,' Medea commented with a mental chuckle. 'It would be clear that they knew you were spying and were feeding you information.'

'A girl can dream.'

'Can you point me toward a commander or admiral,' Emma asked the former pirate.

'Here,' Robin said, projecting a few images through their mental connection. 'Those look the most important, though I am only basing this on my knowledge of human fleets. Franky would have a field day here. By the way, do you know anyone who has studied species, culture and their influence on ship design? The variety here is quite astounding, and I would love to study which aspects are practicality based on species and which are cultural influences.'

'Nobody off the top of my head,' Emma replied absentmindedly, mind already shifting through a few captains of the vessels Robin pointed to. 'I do know of a few planets that are more in tune with intergalactic networks. I'd start looking there once this is all sorted out.'

'It would be interesting to study alien magic systems,' Medea agreed. 'So much of mine is based on the Age of the Gods or the Human Order that came after. A wholly unique perspective and system could give me the last spark I need to recreate the First Flame.'

Emma didn't answer, finally finding a mind containing the needed information.

A Thanagarian admiral who had been part of a critical meeting.

"The key to the plan is to kill Darkseid before he can unleash The Sleeper," Gladiator told the gathered commanders of the emergency coalition. "Should he completely rouse it from its slumber, the entire universe will be swallowed in an endless dream, driving us all to madness."

Kathal Bel's wings itched at the sight of the leader of the Shi'ar within striking distance, yet he held himself back.

This crisis could affect the entire universe, and Thanagar counted on him and his ships to keep them all safe.

It didn't mean he was pleased by the orders from on high to play nice with so many enemies.

"Your orders are not to engage but to maintain the blockade," Gladiator continued. "Do not let anyone or anything escape. Should Darkseid manage to leave, he will hide once more and continue his project to wake the dragon. Once we have defeated Darkseid, The Sleeper will be brought back to the quarantined zone by a team of Green Lanterns, each of whom are willing to give up their rings after this mission."

There was a moment of sombre silence at the words.

For Green Lanterns to give up their rings, some of the most potent weapons in the known universe, just on the off chance that they might be infected underscored the threat of the Sleeper.

But some questions needed to be asked

"If this 'Darkseid' is such a big deal," another commander asked with a snort. A human from a trade coalition, if Kathal recognized the symbol on his chest right. "We should destroy the planet and drag the beast from the rubble."

"Not only would that kill billions of sapient lives," the Green Lantern of Earth's sector said with crossed arms. "It would also fail. Darkseid will not stay dead. He will return, reborn on another planet. It could be yours or anyone else's. We are lucky we know where he is now and cannot miss this chance to contain him."

"An elite force," Gladiator continued. "Composed of myself and the others gathered before you, will be the ones to battle Darkseid."

While it was a relief that not only would Gladiator, a Green Lantern, the last son of Krypton, and other earthlings be the ones engaging in battle directly, it did leave one glaring question.

"What is our role," Kathal said, his wings flaring in agitation. "You cannot mean to have us simply sit and watch?"

"That is exactly your role," Gladiator glared back. "You will ensure that Darkseid does not escape."

Kathal would forever deny the relief he felt at the words. He had no desire to tangle with Earthlings. Those people were barbaric maniacs who seemed to always be on the cusp of one intergalactic crisis after another.

Case in point.

"We can fight him so long as he is confined to the Earth's atmosphere," one of the humans standing with the Shi'ar leader explained. "A home-field advantage that will prevent him from using his full power. But that is not your key role."

"The blockade is an important job," Superman said with a smile that was at once kind as it was grim. "If someone tries to escape Earth, you will slow them down enough for us to catch up. But in an ideal world, you will not see any action. Your most important job is if we fail."

The Kryptonian looked over the room grimly, eyes sad.

"I do not say this lightly. You are the best of the best from all over the universe. Skill, speed, and coordination between your teams. You have the best chance to escape. Your job will be to warn your people of our failure."

"Darkseid, or as he's known in his disguise, Mikael, is a being solely focused on domination and enslavement of all life in the universe," the human in powered armour of red and gold joined in, face plate receding to demonstrate his dour face. "He managed to rouse the Sleeper once. For thirty seconds, my entire home planet was consumed by that Dream."

"We call it Heartbreak," the Green Lantern said seriously. "Nobody could resist. Nobody wanted to resist. For those thirty seconds, we would have died for that Dream. All of Earth would have fallen without putting up a fight, us included, if Darkseid's control hadn't failed at the last moment. We cannot expect to get that lucky again."

"So we will not fail," Gladiator said imperiously. "Darkseid will fall, the Sleeper will return to its quarantine, and we will all return to our regular lives."

The rest of the meeting was taken up by details about 'Darkseid,' his twelve 'slaves,' and their capabilities.

That... didn't make any sense.

Certainly, it was obvious that the missing heroes were being controlled, but what was the plan?

Why, if this was a plot by Darkseid, had he revealed himself after working so hard to remain unknown? As far as the Family could tell, nobody in this universe had ever heard of Darkseid or Apokolips. That secrecy had been his most significant advantage.

And he had just announced himself to everyone.

More than that, the method was odd.

Mikael was Darkseid?

Why?

Emma could understand the reputation of 'The Sleeper' thanks to Kathal's mind, but why separate Mikael from his Dragon form?

If Darkseid wanted the universe to take up arms against them, why not just say Mikael was the Sleeper? It would have the same effect.

And where was this 'elite strike force' of the missing heroes supposed to trap Mikael?

It wouldn't work, of course. The only things that bound Mikael were those that he allowed to do so.

But it had been hours since the blockade had started, and nobody had seen any of the missing heroes. So where were they?

More and more, something about this situation was ringing alarm bells in Emma's mind.

They had always known this invasion to be some enemy plot or trap. Still, it was becoming increasingly apparent that they were much less informed than they thought after discovering Darkseid's identity.

'What did you discover?'

Emma replayed the memory to Medea and Robin as she continued to scan the minds of the innumerable ships surrounding the planet. She spent less than a second on each, just verifying that they didn't know anything more before moving on.

'He's fishing,' Robin said as she finished Kathal Bel's memory. 'He's looking for someone or something, and Mikael's the bait.'

'Someone else is looking for Darkseid,' Medea concurred. 'He doesn't know where they are, though, so he's spreading 'his' location far and wide so they come to him. And they will see Mikael, think he is Darkseid, and fight.'

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'It's the situation with the gods all over again,' Robin said grimly. 'We're being used as weapons. I'll let the others-' Robin's mental voice froze. 'Numerous portals have opened in the sky above the Island. I think they're Boom tubes.'

'Darkseid. Is he in the Jewel?' Medea asked hurriedly. Magic was already wrapped around her and Emma, preparing to teleport them as soon as she knew where to go.

'No, above it. And it's not Darkseid.' Robin said, but there was no relief in her voice. 'I don't remember all of them, but that is definitely Orion. He looks just like the comics. They're attacking the Jewel. I think we found the fish.'

No matter who they were, they had no hope of actually breaking through the Jewel that surrounded the Island for the simple reason that it wasn't actually there. It was just a projection Mikael used to maintain an anchor in this reality.

If Mikael didn't allow anything through, nothing would get through, whether it was Darkseid or his estranged son.

Still, it didn't mean those off the Island were safe.

'Call everyone back home,' Medea ordered Robin. 'Tell them to return to the Island. We got the information we came for. We don't have to defend other places or people if we're the target. We can hold up while we decide what to do next.'

'Got it.'

'Something's changing,' Emma said before Medea could teleport them away. She had never stopped scanning the people's minds on the ships, hoping to gain more information.

A transmission was coming through to every ship, and Emma watched it through a thousand eyes. It was all the same.

"We failed," Superman said simply. Half his body was missing, and he stared at the camera with bleary eyes. "Carry this message to every planet and every people. Darkseid won. He will enslave everyone. Run."

The message cut off.

Ships turned to flee.

Space lit up in hundreds of different ways as hundreds of thousands of vessels fled, carrying news of impending doom to every corner of the universe.

'That was all in English,' Robin said hurriedly, also having seen the transmission from all her spying eyes. 'Many didn't have automatic translators on their ships. They shouldn't have understood it.'

'The image was pretty self-descriptive,' Emma said dryly, turning her attention from the leaving ships to scan the world below.

She found the minds of those attacking the Jewel quickly enough, but they were all increadibly well-defended. She couldn't even get the surface thoughts of the half dozen men and women.

At least not without revealing herself.

'No,' Robin denied. 'I was watching thousands of pilots at once. They all reacted as one. No delay, no questioning, no verification with a chain of command. They moved as one.'

'Darkseid has the Anti-Life Equation,' Medea said grimly. 'It must be hidden in that message somewhere.'

'And now it will be all over the universe,' Robin agreed. 'I can destroy about half of the ships, since I still have limbs in them, but not all of them.'

'Keep eyes on them,' Medea answered quickly. 'But don't destroy them yet. If we can deal with Darkseid, it should remove his control. He revealed his identity to lure Orion out. I'm sure he will make a move. If that doesn't happen, destroy the ones you can.'

Medea's voice didn't waver for an instant as she condemned hundreds of thousands of soldiers to death.

'...I've never found a limit in range, I guess I'll find out now.'

Despite facilitating the communication between the two women, Emma didn't pay them any attention.

All she could focus on was the horror she felt.

Because she had felt nothing else.

If the other two were right, then every single being who had seen that message was infected by the Anti-Life Equation.

Yet Emma had not noticed a single change in their minds. They didn't blank and become mindless slaves. They didn't suddenly believe Darkseid to be their god. They didn't even follow, consciously or unconsciously, any sort of unified command.

From the beginning, Emma had been the one Mikael trusted to inspect minds for controls.

And she failed once again.

Anybody could be under Darkseid's control, and she'd have no way of knowing.

'I'm going to break into one of their minds,' Emma told the other two. 'I might be able to find out what is going on. Let Mikael know what we discovered.'

'I am,' Robin said instantly.

Without further delay, Emma activated her Element.

Diamond was the simplest Element of the Family. Unlike everyone else's, which came with some pretty esoteric powers, all Diamond did was reinforce what Emma already had.

The most useless aspect was the impenetrability of her mind. Her psychic walls were literally unbreakable when she used her Element. But that was a pointless ability, thanks to the Defences doing that and more.

The most helpful ability was the reinforcement of her Diamond form. While she couldn't regenerate like Tsunade, Mikael, or Artoria with Avalon, damaging her was more difficult than breaking the scales on Mikael's true body.

Somewhere in between in usefulness was the increase in her psychic attack capabilities.

As a rule of thumb, Emma preferred not to use them. They revealed her presence to anyone with the most basic of mental defences, like an ice pick driving into their minds, and a psychic's greatest tool was their anonymity and subtlety.

That, and Mikael wasn't comfortable with Emma completely mind-blasting someone.

Still, he had forgiven her for using her Semblance, understanding the necessity. Mikael would forgive her for what she was about to do.

Because it was necessary.

Because Emma could help.

Because Emma needed to help.

So she sharpened her psychic power into a diamond tip and plunged right through Lightray's mental defences.

Not even the psychic abilities of a New God could withstand the psychic attack of Emma Frost, an Omega-level Mutant empowered by a conceptual element and backed by the power of a Command Seal.

All of the Lightray's life was laid bare before her.

At the speed of thought, Emma saw it all. His birth, his growth as a New God of New Genesis, his friendship with Orion, and their eternal war against the New Gods of Apokolips.

She saw battle after battle against the forces of Darkseid across countless realities and through every corner of the multiverse. She felt the comradery, the resolve, and the bonds between Lightray and his best friend.

She felt pride as Orion mastered the rage and hatred inherited from his tyrannic father, gaining control of a portion of the Anti-Life Equation and joy at finally overthrowing the despot with his power.

She felt Lightray's joy and pride swell further as they hunted Darkseid across the multiverse, unwilling to let the former lord of Apokolips regain his former power and prestige.

The first time they found Darkseid's reincarnation, it was a hard-fought victory.

The second time, they arrived early enough that the Dark God could not put up a fight.

They were still looking for Darkseid's third reincarnation.

The Dogs of War had hunted his lieutenants and elites dozens of times in the decades since, but the Lord of Tyrrany remained hidden.

Then, they had sensed something stirring at the edge of the multiverse, where chaos bounded order and realities bled over one another.

They had scoured hundreds of different realities for Darkseid, knowing that every day he was healing. Every second they wasted would make the inevitable battle all the more difficult.

Then, they found something.

The technology they left behind on every one of their raids across the multiverse, beacons to guide them to the slightest clue, activated.

Someone was talking about Darkseid.

From beyond the boundaries of this reality, the Dogs of War watched the coalition gather. They listened to their briefings, spied as the armies gathered, and prepared for war as ships surrounded Earth.

They were not dumb. They knew this could be a trap. The former ruler of Apokolips was as cunning as he was malicious.

It didn't matter if the plan to dominate this 'Sleeper' and use it to enslave the universe aligned with Darkseid's usual plans.

It didn't matter that Superman and other familiar heroes stood against this 'Mikael.'

What mattered was if they had found their prey or not.

And they had.

Because, even as they approached Earth, even as they watched from the Fourth World, they could not see Mikael, the Sleeper, or any of his slaves. Only through the eyes of those looking at the planet could they see the great white dragon.

Surely, only Darkseid could hide so entirely from them. This was how he had remained hidden for so long, using this weird jewel.

They'd shatter this jewelled pocket dimension, preventing Darkseid from using it to hide ever again.

They'd kill Darkseid for a fourth time, weakening him even further.

They'd free those he had enslaved.

They'd even kill this 'Sleeper' to save this portion of the multiverse.

They were soldiers in an eternal war against Tyrrany, and they were winning.

And they'd continue to win.

At the speed of thought, Emma saw it all through Lightray's eyes. Billions of years in an instant, as she only focused on what was important. Even then, details of the last few decades blurred at the speed she worked to discover anything and everything that could help Mikael.

Still, seconds were an eternity to beings like the New Gods.

Immediately, they noticed Lightray faltering in his attack on the jewelled world. From there, they sensed the turbulence of his mental state, and their psychically gifted tried to help.

They couldn't. Even as Emma tore down Lightray's mental wards and scoured his mind, she never let go of her Mind Defence. They couldn't even sense her, only the results of her actions in Lightray's mind.

In the moments following her psychic attack upon Lightray, the New Gods ceased attacking the Jewel and surrounded their comrade.

"Let him go," Big Barda ordered Mikael.

"I have no idea what is happening," Mikael said, holding up a hand as if being sworn in. "Scouts honor. Are you sure he didn't just decide that I was making sense and that stepping on a poor snek like me wouldn't get you anywhere?"

Emma knew Mikael well enough to know when his sass was genuine and when he was trying to provoke someone.

Right now, he was somewhere in between annoyed and pissed off.

He stood there alone, atop his pocket world, as he watched the New Gods try to destroy the Jewel that protected his home. They had also tried to attack him, but he had simply let everything they did pass right through him as he tried to get them to stop and talk.

Mikael himself wasn't too pleased. In addition to being attacked and accused of things he didn't do, he knew he was being manipulated and that with every second that passed, the Anti-Life Equation spread further through the universe.

The only thing keeping his hand from trying to counterattack was the fact that, so far, nobody had actually been hurt. This wasn't a situation like the one with the gods, where his Family had been threatened. The New Gods hadn't even inconvenienced him yet.

That, and doing what your enemy wants is generally a bad idea.

So, Mikael was simply a bit annoyed and trying to settle things diplomatically.

They had refused to engage in diplomacy, knowing that if they relented for even a second, Darkseid could use the opportunity to counterattack. Ironically, the more Mikael tried to get them to stop, the more they were convinced he was Darkseid.

Even standing before Mikael, they could not sense this man at all. Not his mind, not his presence in the multiverse, not even his soul.

And now Lightray had fallen.

"They think you're Darkseid," Emma told her husband through Lightray's mouth.

"I guessed as much," Mikael said sarcastically. She saw how her control over Lightray affected him, but he wasn't willing to show it on his face in front of enemies.

"It's because they can't sense your soul," she continued speaking through Lightray. She was under mental attack from the man himself, as well as his comrades, but they could not breach Mind Defence. "It's how they've been tracking him through the multiverse."

But the Defences themselves were the problem.

Mikael's lips pursed, but he nodded in understanding.

"This should prove I am Me."

Through Lightray's senses, Emma felt what they did. It wasn't a New God ability but one derived from the Mother Boxes they carried. In addition to allowing them to open Boomtubes, it granted a limited form of omniscience in its surroundings.

A limited omniscience that was telling them this was very definitely not Darkseid.

"Wha-"

Emma didn't hear what Scott Free asked her husband.

Her Observation Haki warned her of the incoming attack.

'Scatter!'

Medea's cloak carried her upward instantly while Emma turned herself to Diamond and clad herself in Armament.

The blast of energy carved itself across the sky, illuminating the horizon in a blinding light closer to a solar flare than to any sort of explosion.

There was no sound outside the atmosphere as they were, but heat and force bloomed against Emma's defence with enough force to shatter continents and boil seas.

It wasn't enough to break Diamond.

Singed but undamaged, Emma looked upon their attacker.

A woman of silver-white flew in the void of space, looking at Emma as black Haki receded into her regular sparkling diamond skin.

She was perfect in literally every way. Every one of her limbs was the mathematically perfect ratio to be the ideal, from her legs to her hips to her chest. Even her hair, long and silver, straddled that line of ideal uniformity.

The distillation of all human females into the quintessential 'Woman' one would imagine Eve to have been, only with skin a silvery white instead of a natural colour.

Yet she was not beautiful.

Her perfect face was twisted in agony so complete that Emma's heart went out to this perfect creature despite being under attack.

"Who are you?" Emma asked aloud while reaching out for this person psychically. Emma mentally flinched at what she found. An endless well of confusion, pain, and despair. "How did you find us?"

They were still invisible, covered by Medea's magic and protected by Information and Tracing Defence. It should have been all but impossible to find them.

The woman, creature, whatever it was, did not answer, and Emma realized her mistake. Though she didn't need to breathe and could speak normally and hear herself, the sound would not transmit through the void.

Her Observation Haki flared again, warning her that Emma couldn't block the next attack this time.

A point of space distorted between her and the silver woman, smaller than a speck of dust, and tore through the distance between them in less time than it took to blink.

Emma was already moving before the attack launched, the wings of Diamond sprouting from her back and jettisoning her from the line that tore through space-time.

'She can't see or hear us,' Medea assured Emma as magic circles lit under the silver woman's feet. The force of a small bomb lit up the dark void in purple energy.

The woman didn't even move.

'Then how does she know where we are?' Emma asked, her wings carrying her below and around the woman hovering immobile in the void.

'You tell me,' Medea grunted, weaving a spell in a heartbeat that created a bounded field around the woman that twisted space into a confusing pattern of swirls and knots.

Medea was forced to teleport away again as the space within the bounded field contracted, and the silver woman appeared behind where the witch once stood, waving a hand. The kinetic motion of the movement multiplied and folded over itself until a wall of force larger than a building blasted toward where Medea once floated, and Emma still flew.

She defended herself again, not even needing Armament and letting the force crash harmlessly into her Diamond.

Emma took the opportunity to form her psychic blast into a diamond point and blast through the wall of pain and anguish in the woman's mind.

It was not human, that was for certain. The mind was as alien as any Emma had ever met. It was not conceptually incomprehensible, like Mikael's, but perceiving reality through lenses and senses that Emma had no point of comparison to.

It saw, heard, smelled, felt, and tasted like a human, receiving infinitely more information than someone with superhuman senses. The rest, the perception of the world through crystalline lattices, mathematical equations, and sensory organs Emma had never even conceptualized, made everything she discovered impossible to decipher.

Except for pain.

This creature, all it did was feel pain, in all its forms. Physical, spiritual, and mental. Every sort of pain Emma could imagine, from the sharp sting of broken bones to existential fear of Mikael, leaving her to the grief and regret of realizing how much she had hurt the man she lived for.

All of it and more passed in a moment through this woman's mind.

It perceived the world, but it bore no impact on this creature because of the agony of simply existing.

But it did perceive the world.

'It's finding voids!' Emma called to Medea. 'It's not really seeing us, it's seeing where 'nothing' is. And it has more senses than I can count.'

'Can you shut it down?' The Greek witch said as she dove behind Emma's body, which blocked the rain of superheated plasma with a Diamond wing covered in Haki.

'It's not doing this,' Emma answered quickly, both of them diving out of the way of another one of those stinging tears in reality. 'Its entire mind is too busy suffering. There is no conscious thought. It's not the one controlling its body.'

'Darkseid.'

'Almost certainly.' Emma answered, her wings taking her forward to land a punch on the silver woman.

The kinetic force did nothing, even with her Diamond-covered fist, but the Haki she infused into the attack sent a ripple through the creature's body. It didn't destroy it though, only moving the creature back slightly.

'I'm not going to be much help here besides defence,' Emma said upon seeing the lack of damage. 'Robin, can you alert the others? Scathach or Artoria would be best.'

The former pirate didn't answer with words, sending images to Emma.

Yoruichi engaged in a running battle against Superman, completely uninjured despite the earlier video, reinforcing the idea that it was prerecorded.

Wonder Woman and Artoria fighting side by side against a golden man, so similar to the silver woman in front of them now in his perfect proportion and wide use of powers. They were doing much better than Emma and Medea.

Melina, clad in red and gold flames, clashing against...

Emma's heart sank as she recognized the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom. Valeria, smiling as wide as ever, tried to drown the host of the Phoenix Force in a tide of nanobots. She missed, but the metallic creatures devoured more parts of the Baxter Building and replicated. The grey tide swelled.

Glynda had already transformed into her dragon form as she battled the Titans and Stephen Strange in his full might as Sorcerer Supreme.

Scathach was single-handedly fighting off not only the entire X-men team but also Iron Man, an army of Dragon Suits, and the rest of the Avengers.

Ranni floated within her Diarama, hundreds of thousands of dolls raining spells down on Gladiator. His confidence must be off the charts because he was moving at speeds that Emma couldn't even follow as he destroyed tens of thousands of dolls with every punch. He was moving so fast that even his weakness to magic was irrelevant because he simply wasn't being hit.

Priscilla remained on the Island with Tsunade as the former Hokage gathered Nature chakra to craft shadow clones to help with the battle against the jewel while keeping it safe. She wasn't willing to risk her unborn sons in a battle like this, but she wanted to help, nonetheless.

Raven and Pride were everywhere else.

Earth was covered in shadows as Trigon's daughter battled with tens of thousands of Supers at once. Using the Command Seals each had received to control enough Shadow to conquer a planet as they fought and subdued heroes and villains alike.

Mikael fought side by side with Orion and Mister Miracle. Every other member of the New Gods had turned on them, moving with the same malignant purpose as every other being infected with the Anti-Life Equation.

He was slower than his new comrades, but any damage he received was healed nearly instantly, and he returned every hit with a spell or slash of the Godslaying sword. He kept trying to touch his enemies, likely to Free them, but they remained out of his reach due to his slower speed.

Robin helped where she could. In addition to watching fleeing starships, she grew clones to help in every battle she could.

Hands blinded Superman for an instant before being blasted by lasers. They wrapped around the Invisible Woman, stopping her from casting a forcefield that would have trapped Melina. Enormous feet erupted from mid-air to crush tens of Dragon suits.

Robin was singlehandedly distracting every single hero on the Watchtower. Unable to actually beat most of them, Robin kept them from joining the other fights.

Emma saw all those memories in an instant.

She passed it along to everyone else, along with her own realization.

The people they were fighting, their minds were not being controlled. Or at least in a way, Emma could sense.

They weren't suffering like the silver woman in front of Emma, but they were in a similar situation. Their bodies were moving by a will, not their own.

They saw nothing wrong with their actions. Superman still felt the grief of loss as he crashed through a building, killing its inhabitants as he chased Yoruichi. That didn't stop him from doing it again and feeling that loss again.

To him, it simply made sense. Moving in a straight line was quicker than a curve to avoid things. The good he would do catching and killing Yoruichi outweighed the bad it took to do it. The sooner he did so, the more lives he'd save.

To prove her point, Emma shut down Superman's mind.

The Kryptonian passed out mentally, completely unable to defend against the Diamond spike of psychic energy.

Just like the silver woman, he still continued to attack Yoruichi.

These people were not different from what they were before, with foreign thoughts or goals. They just acted and justified it later based on their own personalities.

And they moved as one.

The attack had been perfectly coordinated on all fronts, with no errors or mistimings. Everyone worked perfectly together, powers used at the perfect time to complement each other and not interfere.

Emma saw the whole world and realized it was all Darkseid.

These people weren't alive or dead. They weren't controlled or free.

They were simply Darkseid and moved as he willed.

Except for Orion and Scott Free, the Family was entirely alone against every enemy Darkseid could throw at them.

And they were, if not winning, then not losing.

The Family held their ground even hampered by the desire to keep most of their opponents alive.

Scathach hadn't been wrong.

They could fight the world and win.

But everyone knew the two trump cards hadn't been played yet.

Darkseid had not appeared.

Mikael had not used his actual body.

How those two cards were played would determine the victor.

But the odds could still be tilted in one direction or the other.

'That should be Eden,' Mikael called to Emma as a magical shield blocked Lightstar's rain of light. 'Artoria and Diana can keep Zion occupied. Can you two handle her?'

Emma couldn't.

She didn't say that. Couldn't say that.

Couldn't be more of a chain than she already was.

Thankfully, she was part of a large Family.

'They should be weak to magic,' Medea said, returning from her dragon form. 'I can use this avatar as a conduit to its real body. If I can get some time, I can set up a sealing ritual. I will need a Seal to do it that fast.'

'I'll buy time,' Emma declared.

Emma transformed, her Diamond Dragon body much larger than Medea's Magic Dragon.

It was a good thing, too, as dozens of blasts of silver light surrounded the pair, and Emma cocooned the much smaller woman with her body.

This attack stung her a bit, despite her being clad in Armament and Emma feeling her Aura dip slightly, but not to any concerning degree yet.

'Take two,' Mikael Commanded, keeping a Seal for emergencies. 'Seal her, then do the same to Zion. Given enough time, Artoria and Diana can beat him, but they can't reach his real body.'

Once they took care of the two entities, the Family would have two of their hardest hitters available and their most flexible member. Emma would retreat to focus on communication and defence beside Mikael, while the others aided Ranni again Gladiator.

From there, Mikael would Free whomever he could as they mopped up, dragging them to the Island to prevent reinfection.

'As soon as anyone sees Darkseid, retreat,' Mikael ordered grimly. 'He's lurking around here somewhere, waiting for the best moment to strike.'

'Can you beat him?' Scathach asked.

'...Don't know,' Mikael said after a moment of hesitation. 'I will certainly try, though. And I think I have a good chance if I don't have to worry about collateral damage, so I'll do it alone. He's fucked with us for too long.'

Nobody said anything after that.

Emma focused on keeping Medea undisturbed as she chanted Divine Words. She carried the witch in her claws, avoiding what attacks she could and blocking those she couldn't.

Half didn't manage to pierce her Haki, while some even managed to damage her Diamond body. Emma's Aura was on a steady decline, though the largest loss came from her inability to dodge one of those stinging rents in reality.

She had managed to tilt herself away to stay alive and keep Medea undisturbed, but it had cost her. The bolt tore through her Haki, Aura, and Diamond body to completely sever the end of her tail.

It wasn't a wound that slowed her, despite the pain, but it did force her to expend some of her Aura to close the wound.

But she bought the time Medea needed.

Every second that passed, the white-purple light of a magical circle grew and grew under the Witch of Betrayal's Divine Words. Intricate symbols and arcane glyphs carved into the darkness of space.

The final product was the largest ritual the world ever saw, a third of the size of their home Island. It glowed with Mikael's infinite power and a Dragon of Magic's precise control.

'Done!'

The Diamond Dragon dove toward Eden as fast as she could, taking numerous attacks but remaining as unfaltering as Diamond as she closed in.

As soon as the first ring of purple light enveloped the Entity, Emma stopped, transformed back to human instantly, and took a position behind Medea.

With a clean line of sight on the target, Eden could not escape.

One moment, everything was bathed in a white-purple light.

The next moment, Emma and Medea floated alone in the void of space outside Earth's atmosphere.

'Phew,' Medea sighed mentally. 'I don't know how long that will last without access to their real body or extensive testing on the extent of their weakness to magecraft. It should buy us a few days at least. Give me a second to reapply the invisib-'

Haki flared a warning.

Emma was too slow to react beyond pushing Medea away.

An enormous hand clasped around a Diamond neck.

"If you leave, she dies," Darkseid told Medea.

They were in the void of space, yet his voice carried perfectly to the Servant, who had flown away in the seconds since his appearance.

'Emma?'

'I can't reach anyone else. He's blocking psychic communication.'

The hand squeezed.

Diamond clad in Armament groaned under the pressure.

Darkseid could not sense their communication but knew them to be communicating.

"Lower your protections," the Lord of Tyrrany ordered.

Emma couldn't move her head to look at him, but she saw him through Medea's eyes—inexorable, unmovable.

Darkseid held Emma aloft in one hand with the most casual of ease, looking into the witch's eyes and demanding submission.

"You have lost. Submit. Become one with Darkseid."

Darkseid wasn't in any hurry, but the pressure on Emma's neck grew.

Diamond groaned.

'Mikael will sense us being cut off,' Medea said.

'He only has one Seal left.'

He could only summon one of them if he summoned them at all.

Whether it was teleportation or opening a portal to the Island, each would take a moment.

A moment in which whoever wasn't summoned died.

Neither had been able to react to Darkseid's appearance, even with Haki. He was simply too fast for Emma or Medea's C-rank Agility.

"Submit, or I will force you to watch as I visit hell upon your Family, the likes of which you cannot comprehend."

Diamond cracked.

'Portal to the Island. He can't stop that.'

'Emma?'

'I'll buy you the time. I still have most of my Command Seal.'

Mikael could summon her if Medea could get there in time, and Emma could delay Darkseid enough.

Both knew the chances of that happening.

'I also have a Seal. A full one. I am a Servant. We are already dead.'

'We all died.'

'We can delay him. Mikael can free you.'

'I refuse to be a chain around his neck.'

"Submit or die."

Emma's entire focus was on a Diamond sharp lance of psychic energy.

Stronger than the attack that had blasted through Lightray's defence by orders of magnitude, Emma put everything she had into the blast.

Her Element, her Command Seal, her Semblence.

Everything.

For a second, it worked.

For a second, Emma saw the madness that was Darkseid.

Domination and Tyrrany were his very being. He would never be satisfied until everything that existed or would exist were under a control so total that they would be part of Darkseid himself, indistinguishable from his own limbs.

That madness would have broken Emma Frost.

Emma was not Emma Frost.

She had been born in a madness much greater than this.

So, for a second, Emma saw Darkseid's mind and knew his plan.

In his state, he didn't fear Orion, Scott Free, Mikael, or the Family, even though they were immune to the Anti-Life Equation. He was powerful enough to deal with them all at once.

But this Darkseid had learned patience, and one thing did concern him.

Heartbreak.

This entire invasion had initially been planned to spread the Anti-Life Equation, lure out Orion, and drag Mikael's actual body from his jewelled world.

As soon as Mikael's true body was not protected, Darkseid would kill him before he could use Heartbreak again.

But Mikael was not the one behind Heartbreak.

Emma was.

The target shifted, but the plan didn't. When he discovered her location, Darkseid would never allow her to go free again.

For one second, Darkseid experienced Heartbreak for a second time.

But only for a second.

He was wary of the ability, but not because he feared it.

Darkseid hated it.

More than anything in his entire existence, Darkseid hated the feeling of Heartbreak.

This was not the same Darkseid who had experienced it for the first time.

He was one with the Anti-Life Equation.

He had no heart to break.

The second passed.

A grey-white portal closed.

Diamond shattered.

Truly, Emma Frost could only hurt Mikael.