Chapter 6.5
-General POV-
Bardock's eyes moved slowly across the battered figures before him, taking in every expression with a degree of scrutiny that seemed almost incongruous with the sheer scale of destruction surrounding them. Superman was tense, Kara was visibly struggling to keep herself upright, Diana's cracked shield remained raised despite the damage running through its divine metal, and Billy's breathing was laboured enough that every breath seemed to pull against injuries he had no time to properly acknowledge. Even the Lanterns, who had maintained their composure through the worst of the battle, were watching Bardock with the wary concentration of men attempting to determine whether the thing before them was about to become an extinction-level threat.
Bardock noticed all of it. He noticed the fear, the suspicion and, beneath those things, the dawning conviction that the creature hovering above them had crossed some moral boundary simply by demonstrating what he could do. His expression gradually became more thoughtful, the manic exhilaration in his amber eyes giving way to something quieter and almost contemplative.
"You all seem to be staring at me like I'm some villain," he said, his voice carrying easily across the volcanic wasteland, "the kind that would throw an entire planet into cataclysm just so I can have a battlefield. Perhaps, I should show you all something, at least those amongst you that can survive."
Billy rasped out a breath and shifted within the Lantern construct, one hand instinctively moving towards his ribs as the broken bones protested against the movement. "And what is that?" he managed to ask.
Bardock's smile returned, although there was no humour in it this time. "Just how merciful I've been."
The change in Bardock's demeanour was subtle enough that the League might have missed it if they had not spent the preceding battle studying him so closely. His posture remained relaxed, his shoulders loose and his fists open, yet the overwhelming pressure radiating from him seemed to sharpen rather than diminish. The green aura around his body no longer surged randomly like an uncontrolled flame. Instead, it began to contract, drawing inward until the light gathered close against his skin, making the transformed Saiyan appear almost strangely calm against the burning landscape.
Superman watched him carefully, recognising that the reduction in visible energy did not mean Bardock had become weaker. If anything, it reminded him of the moments immediately before Bardock had attacked him in their earlier exchanges, when the Saiyan had seemed almost casual right before moving with enough force to send him through mountains.
"What exactly are you planning to show us?" Clark asked, keeping his voice level.
Bardock looked at him and tilted his head slightly. "The difference between what I have been doing and what I could have done."
Diana's expression hardened. "If this is an attempt to intimidate us, you have already made your point."
Bardock gave a faint shrug. "If I wanted to intimidate you, Princess, I wouldn't need to explain myself first." The words were delivered without arrogance, almost as an observation, and that was precisely what made them unsettling.
Before anyone could respond, Bardock's attention shifted sideways and he reached out with one hand. There was no visible movement through the air, no disturbance of the smoke or flare of energy to announce what he was doing. His fingers simply closed around something that, until that moment, appeared to occupy absolutely nothing. The League heard a muffled sound of surprise, followed by a violent struggle, and then the impossible became visible.
A head appeared between Bardock's fingers, suspended beside his hand as the green aura of his Wrath State illuminated the outline of Martian Manhunter's face. J'onn's body remained invisible, but Bardock had somehow caught him by the head as easily as another man might seize a helmet. The Martian immediately attempted to escape, shifting his density and trying to phase through Bardock's fingers, but the Saiyan's grip tightened before he could complete the manoeuvre.
J'onn's face contorted with effort as his telepathic abilities collided against the overwhelming physical and energetic presence surrounding him. Bardock looked at him with mild curiosity.
"Going invisible doesn't hide someone from me," he remarked, almost conversationally. "You should know that by now. I can sense living things without relying upon sight, and your mind is rather difficult to overlook when you're standing this close."
J'onn attempted to force his way free, but Bardock's fingers tightened further around his skull. The Martian's body finally became visible as his concentration faltered, appearing in fragments beneath the Saiyan's hand as though reality itself were struggling to decide whether he was there. Bardock did not seem particularly impressed by the attempt.
"You're interesting," he continued, examining him as though he were some unusual specimen encountered during training. "Your body changes density, your mind is extraordinarily powerful, and you can make yourself disappear from ordinary senses. Against most opponents, that would make you extremely troublesome." His amber eyes narrowed slightly. "Unfortunately for you, I am not most opponents."
His hand closed another fraction, and J'onn's body jerked as the pressure became overwhelming. Bardock held him there for only another second before casually throwing him aside. The Martian's body disappeared into the darkness beyond the volcanic landscape, tumbling through smoke and ash before finally vanishing from sight. Bardock turned back towards the League as though nothing unusual had happened.
"Now," he said, "where were we?"
The answer came from Batman, although the Dark Knight never managed to finish it. Bruce had already moved, unlatching his Sonic Devastator recognising the shift in the battlefield before most of the others, and Flash was accelerating at the same instant. The Lanterns began constructing barriers while Superman and Kara moved to intercept Bardock, but the Saiyan disappeared.
There was no warning, no charge, no visible acceleration. One moment he stood above the ruined continent, and the next the air exploded where Batman had been standing. Bruce was struck hard enough by a shockwave to be hurled against a ridge of volcanic stone, his armoured body disappearing beneath a cloud of ash. Barry barely avoided the follow-up, only for Bardock to appear directly in his path. Flash twisted sideways, but Bardock's hand caught the edge of his suit and flung him across the battlefield with such force that he vanished beyond a rocky overlook.
Hal and John attempted to react simultaneously, throwing up a series of enormous green barriers, but Bardock tore through them with his shoulder and struck them both in the same sweeping movement. Their constructs shattered around them as they were sent tumbling into the burning landscape.
Then Bardock seized the others. Superman felt a hand close around his forearm before he could throw a punch. Kara was caught around the waist in the same instant, and Diana and Billy were both intercepted before they could fully accelerate. The four heroes attempted to break free, but Bardock's strength was simply beyond anything they had been able to resist during the battle. Superman twisted his arm, Kara struck Bardock across the face, Diana drove her shield into his side and Billy summoned lightning directly against him, yet none of it altered his grip.
Bardock merely accelerated upwards. The volcanic landscape dropped away beneath them as he shot into the atmosphere, carrying the four heroes with him as effortlessly as though they weighed nothing. Superman immediately attempted to change their trajectory, but Bardock vanished before Clark could gain leverage. Space appeared around them for a fraction of a second before Bardock reappeared several kilometres farther ahead, then disappeared again. Another jump. Another. Another. Each transition through Instant Transmission lasted only an instant, but the repeated shifts between locations disrupted their sense of direction so violently that even Superman found himself struggling to determine which way was up.
Kara tried to wrench herself free and found the attempt made the disorientation worse. The stars themselves appeared to jump around them as Bardock repeatedly teleported forwards, carrying the four heroes through enormous distances without giving them any opportunity to establish a stable point of reference. Diana attempted to anchor herself against Bardock's body and use her own momentum, but he simply changed direction and teleported again. Billy called upon his divine strength and tried to pull away, yet every time he gathered enough leverage to act, the world disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. Superman finally realised what Bardock was doing.
"He's deliberately preventing us from orienting ourselves," he said through clenched teeth.
Kara looked towards him, her expression strained. "You think?"
Clark ignored the sarcasm. "He's using the teleportation itself as a weapon."
Bardock glanced over his shoulder with an amused smile. "Good. At least one of you is paying attention." Then he vanished again, and the stars became streaks of light before snapping back into existence around them.
When Bardock finally stopped, the sudden absence of movement was almost as disorienting as the teleportation itself. The four heroes drifted before an enormous planet whose surface glowed with shades of red, orange and black. Behind them, a yellow star burned brilliantly, bathing the surrounding system in golden light and illuminating the vast volcanic world ahead. The planet was roughly comparable in size to Earth, yet almost none of its surface resembled the world they had come from.
Great regions appeared to be dominated by molten rock, volcanic structures and incandescent terrain, with enormous scars running across its surface. It was a world defined not by oceans and forests but by geological violence and everlasting inferno where the light of its sun touched the surface. Bardock released them, allowing Superman, Kara, Diana and Billy to drift independently through space before they instinctively stabilised themselves.
Clark immediately turned towards the Saiyan. "Where are we?" he demanded.
Bardock floated several metres away, his arms folded casually across his chest. "A nearby star system." He gestured towards the planet. "I have been scouting systems close to Earth as part of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. I found this one while mapping the surrounding region." He glanced towards the planet with the same detached interest one might give an unfamiliar battlefield. "That is HD-63433-d, as I believe your so-called NASA scientists like to put it."
Superman looked towards the world and then back at Bardock. "You brought us here because you wanted somewhere private?"
Bardock shook his head. "Partly. More importantly, I wanted somewhere that would demonstrate my point without killing everyone on Earth."
Diana's eyes narrowed as she considered the implications of the statement. "You planned this."
Bardock gave her a look that suggested the accusation was almost flattering. "I planned several things. Bringing you here was improvised."
Billy, still breathing painfully, stared at the planet before them. "You dragged four of us halfway across space because you wanted to make a point?"
Bardock smiled. "Yes. Precisely so. I'd give you a gold star if I had one."
Billy frowned at the dig. "That's insane."
"Probably." Bardock looked back towards the planet. "But it's also considerably safer than doing this where there are billions of innocent people."
Superman's expression tightened. "You keep calling yourself merciful."
"I am. If you really think about it."
Clark shook his head. "You have a strange definition of the word."
Bardock's gaze shifted towards him. "Perhaps. But I have lived a very long time Superman, subjectively at least. And I've learned that mercy is often a matter of scale."
Bardock turned his attention fully towards the two Kryptonians. He looked first at Kara, then at Superman, studying the way the yellow star illuminated their bodies. "I was curious about you two," he said. "Your energy is strange."
Kara's expression became guarded. "Strange how?"
Bardock gestured towards the star. "Foreign. When I first sensed it, I assumed your strength came from within you, but the energy signature didn't behave like conventional biological power. It enters you, changes you and remains stored within your bodies until you expend it." Superman's expression shifted as he realised where the conversation was going. Bardock's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I didn't understand it at first. Your biology is unusual enough that I couldn't isolate the source, especially while we were fighting under Earth's atmosphere. But here, this close to a yellow star, my suspicions have been confirmed." He looked at the golden light surrounding them. "You're solar powered."
Kara's eyes narrowed. "You say that like it's an insult."
"It's more disappointing than something to be scorned." Bardock replied.
Superman frowned. "Why?"
"Because I thought your strength was your own." Bardock's tone remained remarkably sincere. "When I fought you on Earth, I thought I was dealing with another species that had simply evolved to possess absurd physical power. I respected that. It would have been interesting to meet a race whose natural strength was comparable to my own. Perhaps even greater." He looked towards the star again. "Instead, you're absorbing energy from an external source and converting it into strength, speed, durability and your other abilities." He paused before adding. "That doesn't make you weak. Far from it. It's still an extraordinary biological mechanism, and the fact that your bodies can store and utilise stellar energy so efficiently is fascinating. That its radiation alone gives you such power when someone like myself who can summon the energy of a few thousand suns in my palm only then is able to meet your strength with comparable challenge. It's a marvel in a league of its own. But I admit I was hoping for something else."
Superman folded his arms. "You sound almost offended."
"Not offended." Bardock's smile returned. "Just disappointed. Although I suppose I should be grateful. It makes the two of you considerably more interesting than ordinary humans."
Kara scoffed. "That's generous."
Bardock looked at her. "It wasn't intended as an insult."
"You called our powers borrowed."
"I called them solar powered."
Kara's eyes narrowed. "Which you clearly think makes them less impressive."
Bardock considered the accusation before shrugging. "Perhaps slightly."
Superman intervened before Kara could respond. "You said you were scouting nearby systems. How long have you been doing that?"
Bardock's expression became more distant. "Since I realised I was stranded here. Earth is not the only place I've investigated. I've been trying to understand the cosmology, the technology, the magical systems, the lifeforms and the geography of this universe. I don't like being ignorant about my surroundings."
Superman studied him for a moment. "You could have asked us."
Bardock chuckled softly. "Would you have answered?" Neither Kryptonian immediately responded. Bardock nodded. "That's what I thought."
Diana floated closer, her damaged shield still held firmly despite the crack across its surface. "You brought us here to prove that you were holding back," she said. "So prove it."
Bardock looked at her, and for the first time since arriving in the system, his expression became entirely serious. "I will." The green aura around his body brightened, though it remained controlled. "My people were warriors. Not particularly good ones, morally speaking. They travelled through space, found inhabited worlds and conquered them."
Superman's expression darkened, the irony regarding the history of his own race not lost on him. Bardock continued without hesitation. "Sometimes the worlds were difficult. Sometimes they weren't. When they found one that didn't possess enough power to resist them, they didn't send an army. They sent a child."
Kara stared at him. "A child?"
Bardock nodded. "A Saiyan infant. The baby would be sent alone to the planet, usually somewhere isolated. When the moon was full, its body would transform. The resulting creature would rampage across the planet and kill everything capable of resisting it."
Billy stared at him in disbelief. "You're telling us babies were weapons?"
"Exactly." Bardock's voice had become quieter. "A Saiyan infant was sufficient to devastate a backwater world. The transformation multiplied its strength enormously, and because the child had no understanding of restraint, it would simply destroy until there was nothing left worth destroying. Afterwards, adults would arrive and strip the planet of whatever natural resources were valuable, or populate it as an outpost." He glanced towards where Earth would be far behind them, his expression difficult to read. "That was normal to my ancestors."
Superman's jaw tightened. "And you're telling us that you are descended from those people."
Bardock met his eyes. "Yes." He paused. "But I am not them." The statement hung between them. Bardock extended one hand. A tiny point of green light appeared upon his fingertip. The four heroes instinctively tensed. The point became a sphere no larger than a marble, spinning with such density that the surrounding light appeared to distort around it. Bardock looked at it almost casually. "One infant was enough to wipe out the inhabitants of a planet like Earth." His eyes shifted towards the volcanic world before them. "I don't need a transformation to accomplish the same thing."
Superman moved slightly forwards. "Bardock."
The Saiyan looked at him. "This planet is uninhabited."
Clark's expression tightened. "You don't know that."
"I've scanned it." Bardock's tone was matter-of-fact. "There is no civilisation here, no intelligent life and no biosphere that requires preservation."
Diana stared at the growing point of energy. "And you intend to destroy it simply to prove a point." Her tone still held a measure of skepticism.
Bardock shook his head. "No. I intend to show you the difference between the strength you fought on Earth and the strength I chose not to use."
The sphere expanded another fraction. Green light illuminated Bardock's fingers.
Superman looked at him with growing concern. "How much power is in that?"
Bardock smiled. "Very little. Something I'll make back before this attack even reaches its target."
Then he flicked his finger. The ki blast crossed the distance between Bardock and the planet almost instantly. It was so small compared with the enormous world ahead that, for a moment, the attack seemed almost absurd. A single green point against the darkness of space. Superman's eyes followed it anyway. The blast struck the planet on its upper hemisphere, disappearing into the surface with a flash so bright that the immediate region became indistinguishable from the surrounding star.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the planet bulged. The impact point erupted outward in a rapidly expanding sphere of incandescent matter, punching through the upper crust and throwing an enormous plume of molten rock into space. The surface around the strike zone turned white-hot first, then orange, then a violent yellow as the energy penetrated deeper. A circular shockwave spread across the planet's curvature, racing outward far faster than any ordinary geological event could occur. Mountains near the impact site vanished beneath the expanding wave. Vast regions of dark volcanic terrain were suddenly illuminated from beneath as the blast drove deeper into the planet's interior.
Cracks appeared. They began as thin lines branching away from the impact point, glowing faintly orange beneath the darkened surface. Then they widened. One became ten. Ten became hundreds. The fractures spread across the planetary surface like veins of fire, racing around continents and across mountain ranges, descending into valleys and climbing back over ridges. Through the widening fissures came an increasingly intense light from below. The planet's crust was becoming transparent in places, not because the rock had become glass, but because the temperatures beneath it had risen beyond anything the surface could contain. The glow of the mantle began shining through the cracks, followed by deeper, brighter radiance from the planet's core.
Kara stared in horror as the entire world began changing colour. The dark surface of the planet was disappearing beneath incandescent fractures. Orange lines became rivers of light. Rivers became vast glowing regions. Entire hemispheres began shining as the energy propagated through the planetary interior, turning the world into something resembling a gigantic ember suspended against the blackness of space. Huge pieces of crust were lifted away from the surface and thrown into orbit, trailing molten material behind them. Some fragments broke apart before escaping, while others became temporary rings of glowing debris circling the dying world. The planet continued to brighten, its surface becoming increasingly dominated by yellow-white fire as the pressure inside it became impossible to contain.
Superman watched silently. He had seen planets destroyed before. He had witnessed cosmic entities capable of feats that dwarfed anything ordinary life could comprehend. Yet there was something deeply unsettling about seeing Bardock accomplish the destruction with such casual precision. There had been no prolonged struggle, no beam that required seconds of charging, no enormous exertion. Bardock had simply raised one finger, formed a tiny sphere of energy and flicked it away.
The planet began to deform. Its spherical shape became irregular as enormous sections of the crust lifted away from the surface. The glowing interior expanded into the darkness, and then the entire world became one enormous fireball. The outer layers fractured into incandescent plates that were immediately torn apart by the pressure beneath them. For a brief moment, the planet resembled a second sun, a molten sphere shining brilliantly against the distant star behind it.
Then it exploded.
The planet's core erupted outward in a catastrophic release of energy, throwing enormous quantities of molten rock and superheated gas into space. The glowing sphere tore itself apart from within, fragments of the former planet racing outward in every direction. Some pieces were large enough to resemble miniature worlds before they fractured further, while countless smaller fragments became glowing debris spread across the system. A vast expanding cloud of incandescent material replaced the planet, illuminated from behind by the yellow star. The shockwave passed through the surrounding debris, accelerating fragments and sending them outward into the darkness. Where a planet had existed moments before, there was now only an expanding field of fire, rock and gas.
Nobody spoke. Billy's expression had gone completely blank. Diana stared at the expanding debris field, her damaged shield hanging forgotten at her side. She had been told stories of gods destroying cities and worlds. She had fought beings whose strength exceeded the limits of mortal understanding. Yet the casualness of what she had just witnessed disturbed her more than the destruction itself. Bardock had not strained. He had not screamed. He had not transformed again. He had not even raised his voice.
Kara looked towards him slowly. "Y-y-you said that was very l-little." Her voice shook, barely in control of her feelings as old memories of what exactly had devastated Argo City brought up old trauma.
Bardock nodded. "It was."
Her expression tightened. "But…that destroyed an entire planet."
"Yes."
"And you could have done that on Earth."
Bardock's gaze remained on the expanding debris cloud. "Yes. Would've taken less effort really."
Superman finally looked directly at him. "How much were you holding back?"
Bardock was quiet for several seconds. Then he answered. "Enough that you never actually found out." The words settled over them with more weight than the explosion itself.
Diana looked at the remains of the planet and then back towards Bardock. "You could have killed us. You could have destroyed the Earth. You could have ended this fight before it began."
Bardock's amber eyes met hers. "Yes. Exactly so."
Diana's expression hardened. "Then why didn't you?"
For the first time since the battle began, Bardock looked genuinely puzzled by the question. "Because I didn't want to." The simplicity of the answer seemed to unsettle them more than anything else he had said. Bardock looked between the four heroes, his expression gradually becoming more serious. "You keep assuming that because I enjoy fighting, I must enjoy destruction. Those aren't the same thing. I like martial arts. I like learning what another fighter can do. I like being forced to adapt, to think, to improve. I like discovering where my limits are and finding ways around them. What I don't particularly enjoy is killing people who cannot defend themselves." His eyes briefly moved towards the remains of the planet. "That is why I brought you here. I needed somewhere empty to demonstrate the difference. If I had wanted you dead, I would not have taken you away from Earth first."
Superman looked at the expanding cloud of planetary debris and then back at Bardock. "You expect us to be reassured by that?"
"No." Bardock smiled faintly. "Those who know me should know what exactly I'm capable of. But I do expect you to understand." Clark's expression remained troubled. Bardock folded his arms. "And perhaps," he added, "to stop looking at me as though I'm one bad mood away from destroying your planet."
Billy finally found his voice again, though it came out rougher than before. "You just blew up a freaking planet to prove that you were 'merciful'."
Bardock looked at him. "Yes. If it's any consolation, I don't take pleasure in this. Too messy. And besides, my home planet blowing up is how most of my race were wiped out."
Clark would have felt some sort of kinship if he wasn't looking at a field of wrecked space-rock.
Billy stared at him for several seconds. "That sentence is going to haunt me."
Bardock laughed. And somewhere behind them, the remains of the destroyed planet continued expanding through the darkness, glowing fragments drifting silently through space as the four heroes began to understand that the terrifying part of Bardock's Wrath State was not simply how much power it possessed. It was how much power he had decided not to use.
"So now that we've gotten to intimately know each other, as was my intention from the start of this great battle, in which I must say I have truly enjoyed myself, and we know where the other stands…are we finally ready for a discussion?"
-+-
(A Few Minutes Later)
The five figures descended through the atmosphere with considerably less violence than the journey into space had involved, although that distinction did little to make the landing gentle. Bardock reduced his speed only in the final moments, allowing the ruined Antarctic landscape to rise beneath them until the blackened earth, fractured ice and distant plumes of steam became distinct.
He touched down first, boots sinking several inches into the softened ground, while Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Shazam followed in varying states of exhaustion. None of them spoke immediately. There was little left to say after what they had witnessed beyond the atmosphere, and the silence that followed them back to Earth was almost as oppressive as the silence of space itself.
The northern edge of Antarctica no longer resembled the frozen wilderness it had been when the confrontation began. Mountains had been reduced to broken shelves of stone, enormous scars ran across the ground where shockwaves had passed, and sections of the continental ice sheet had been pulverised or transformed into steaming water before freezing again in grotesque formations. Great clouds of dust and vapour still drifted through the air, illuminated by the pale sunlight that filtered between them, while rivers of newly exposed water wound through blackened channels in the earth.
Bardock hovered several feet above the ground for a moment, looking across the devastation with an expression that was far more contemplative than triumphant, before finally lowering himself beside the four heroes. He had returned to the place from which they had departed, and the League members who had remained behind were already waiting among the wreckage, their attention immediately drawn toward the battered figures approaching from the sky.
Superman landed first, his boots pressing into the fractured ground as he looked toward Batman and the others, and the sight of him alone was enough to tell the assembled League that the confrontation had not ended in the straightforward victory they had hoped for. Clark's uniform was torn and scorched, blood had dried at the corner of his mouth, and several bruises were already darkening beneath his skin. Supergirl looked little better, one arm hanging stiffly at her side while Diana carried herself with the controlled dignity of someone refusing to acknowledge how badly she hurt.
Billy had abandoned any pretence that he was fine; his breathing was shallow, his costume was torn across the chest, and one hand remained pressed protectively against his ribs. Batman, who had already been examining the landscape with a grim expression, turned toward Superman as the others gathered around them.
"What happened?" he asked, though his voice suggested that he already suspected the answer would not be pleasant.
Superman looked briefly toward Bardock, who had walked several paces away and was now standing quietly with his hands resting at his sides, before answering. He explained that Bardock had taken them beyond the atmosphere, that they had travelled through several instantaneous jumps, and that the Saiyan had deliberately chosen an uninhabited volcanic planet as a demonstration. Then he told them what Bardock had done to it, how little energy he had apparently required, and what Bardock had said afterwards. The League listened without interruption, and the implications settled over them with a weight considerably greater than the physical destruction surrounding their feet.
There was a particular silence after Superman finished describing the planet's destruction, because everyone present understood the difference between hearing that someone possessed enough power to destroy a world and watching someone demonstrate it with the casual precision of a man flicking a stone into a lake.
Batman's eyes narrowed as he processed the information, while John Stewart and Hal Jordan exchanged a brief glance that required no words. Flash, still nursing several injuries of his own, looked toward Bardock with an expression caught somewhere between disbelief and reluctant admiration. J'onn had recovered from being thrown across the battlefield and now stood several metres away, his face unusually solemn.
"So when he said he had been holding back," John murmured, "he meant it."
Superman nodded. "Completely."
Diana folded her arms despite the discomfort it caused her and looked toward Bardock, studying the Saiyan not as an enemy now but as a problem that could no longer be solved by force.
"Then we have already made our mistake," she said quietly. "We approached him as though strength would establish the terms of our conversation. It did not."
Batman's jaw tightened, because he disliked admitting that more than anyone else, but he could not honestly dispute it. They had fought Bardock with every advantage they could bring to bear, coordinated their attacks, exploited openings and forced him to expend enormous quantities of energy, and he had nevertheless survived, recovered, transformed and ultimately demonstrated that their understanding of his limits had been catastrophically incomplete.
The conclusion was unpleasant precisely because it was so simple. They could not threaten Bardock into cooperation, because he had already demonstrated that their combined physical strength could not compel him to do anything he genuinely refused to do. They could not imprison him by conventional means, because he possessed speed, teleportation and strength sufficient to make most restraints meaningless. They could not even reliably outrun him, and Batman suspected that trying would merely convince the Saiyan that they were preparing another attack.
That left them with the one method they had been reluctant to employ from the beginning: conversation conducted without the expectation that the League possessed the upper hand.
"We do not have to like his methods," Diana said, her gaze remaining fixed on Bardock, "but we should understand them. He wanted us to know what he was capable of before we attempted to judge him. He could have killed us several times during that battle. Instead, he kept choosing increasingly obvious demonstrations."
Superman looked down at the ground for a moment. "He was angry, but he wasn't trying to kill us."
Batman's eyes flicked toward him. "That emphasis is becoming increasingly important."
Clark nodded slowly. "Then let's stop pretending we can make him listen by standing over him." He raised his voice toward the Saiyan. "Bardock. We're ready to talk."
Bardock turned at once, and for the first time since the battle had begun, the enormous pressure surrounding him disappeared completely. The green radiance faded from his body, the wild hair gradually settling as his transformation receded, and the tremendous physical bulk of his Wrath State diminished until the Saiyan stood once more at his familiar six-foot-five height. His muscles remained formidable, but the almost monstrous proportions of the transformed state were gone, leaving behind the leaner, more recognisably humanoid frame the League had seen before their confrontation began. The change was startling enough that several members instinctively shifted their weight, expecting some hidden trick, but Bardock merely exhaled and rolled one shoulder as though returning from an exhausting training session.
"Good," he said, walking toward them. "Because I would rather talk than spend another hour throwing mountains at people." His eyes moved over the League, and his expression softened when he noticed the extent of their injuries. He reached behind himself and pulled a small cloth bag from the waistband of his trousers, tossing it lightly from one hand to the other.
Batman immediately focused on it. Bardock noticed and smiled faintly. "Before anyone gets suspicious, it's medicine."
Bruce's expression did not change. "That description has not reassured me." Bardock gave a quiet laugh, opened the bag and produced several small familiar green beans. "They're called senzu beans. Eat one."
Batman stared at the bean Bardock held toward him with the suspicion of a man who had spent his life assuming that anything offered by a stranger was either poisoned, tracked, weaponised or all three…even if he had observed the beans' effect firsthand when he administered one intravenously to Bardock a month prior.
Superman, however, recognised the objects from the earlier medical demonstrations and stepped closer. "They're the same things we analysed in the Watchtower," he said. Bardock nodded.
"The same ones."
Kara glanced at Clark, then back at the bean. "And what exactly do they do?"
Bardock shrugged. "Heal you."
The answer was so simple that Kara's suspicious expression hardened further. "Define heal."
Bardock considered the question for a moment before answering. "Broken bones. Torn muscles. Internal injuries. Exhaustion. Most things short of being dead, although even that's complicated."
Clark reached for one and swallowed it without hesitation. The effect was immediate. His posture straightened as though an invisible weight had been lifted from his body, bruising vanished beneath his skin, and the fatigue that had settled over his face simply disappeared. He drew a deep breath, and the slight pain that had accompanied it was gone.
"Bruce," he said, looking toward Batman, "you should take one." Batman refused initially, insisting that he could function and that the League needed to properly understand what Bardock was giving them before they consumed it. Superman's expression became unusually serious. "You have internal bleeding." That stopped him. Bruce looked at him sharply, and Clark continued. "The shockwaves damaged you more than you realised. You are compensating for it, but it's there." After a long moment, Batman accepted the bean.
The sensation was unlike any medical treatment Bruce Wayne had ever experienced. There was no gradual reduction in pain, no medication-induced numbness and no slow process of stabilisation that allowed the body to catch up with itself. The moment the bean dissolved, something seemed to surge through his entire system, not as energy but as an impossibly efficient biological command. Damaged tissue repaired itself with astonishing speed, microscopic tears closed, blood loss ceased and the internal bleeding Superman had detected simply stopped existing.
The bruising vanished, the ache in his ribs disappeared, and the deep exhaustion that had accumulated through the battle was erased so thoroughly that Batman briefly wondered whether he had imagined it. He flexed his fingers, then his wrist, testing the movement with the analytical caution that had become instinctive to him. Nothing hurt. Not even slightly. Around him, the other injured League members were experiencing the same phenomenon.
Diana's bruised shoulder returned to normal, Billy's fractured ribs knitted themselves together, Kara's breathing eased and the damage to J'onn's body from Bardock's earlier assault vanished. Even those who had not been seriously injured found themselves feeling remarkably refreshed after consuming the beans, as though they had slept for an entire night without actually leaving the battlefield and eaten enough to stay full for days.
Batman looked down at the empty space where the bean had been and became more troubled rather than less. "This really doesn't just accelerate healing," he said quietly, his mind going back over the lab report regarding this alien legume.
Bardock raised an eyebrow. "No. It restores the body to an undamaged state while apparently replenishing energy reserves at the same time. If the effect is consistent, conventional trauma medicine becomes almost irrelevant for anyone who has access to these." Bardock shrugged. "That's why we don't hand them out to everyone. They're useful, but they're not exactly something you grow in a greenhouse."
Batman looked toward the small bag. "How many do you have?"
Bardock smiled. "Enough."
That answer was deeply unhelpful, but before Bruce could pursue the matter, a strange radiance appeared overhead. It began as a narrow point of light and expanded into a twisting column of multicoloured brilliance, colours that seemed too vivid to belong to ordinary light. The air itself vibrated around it. Every member of the League instinctively looked upward, and even Bardock's relaxed posture changed instantly. The beam descended toward the ground a short distance away, touching down without producing an explosion, but the sheer intensity of its illumination forced several of them to shield their eyes. For several seconds the Antarctic wasteland was drowned in colour, and then the light contracted inward until a single figure stood where it had struck.
The Grand Minister appeared almost serene amid the devastation. He was short but elegant, his blue complexion contrasting with the dark formal clothing that framed his narrow body, and his white hair swept behind him in a way that seemed almost too perfectly arranged. A luminescent blue halo hung behind his head. Batman immediately made a link between this mysterious person and the slender blue man from Bardock's family and friends photo.
His face carried the calm, almost courteous expression of someone accustomed to standing in rooms where the fate of universes could be discussed as casually as the weather, while his eyes possessed a quiet depth that made even Superman instinctively recognise that this was not another powerful combatant. There was no dramatic aura surrounding him, no obvious display of strength and no aggressive posture whatsoever, yet the atmosphere seemed to change simply because he had arrived.
Bardock stared at him for half a heartbeat, and whatever casual confidence he had displayed toward the Justice League vanished completely. His shoulders straightened, his expression became solemn, and he immediately lowered himself onto one knee, bowing his head. The transformation was so complete that Batman's eyes narrowed with renewed interest. This was not fear. It was respect, bordering upon reverence.
"Grand Minister," Bardock said, his voice suddenly quieter than it had been at any point during the battle. "I wasn't expecting you."
The Grand Minister regarded him for several moments before answering, and when he finally spoke, his voice was gentle enough that it seemed almost incongruous with the power implied by his presence. "I cannot remain here for very long, Bardock. There are matters elsewhere that require my attention, and I have only come because circumstances have made a brief visit necessary."
Bardock nodded obediently. "Understood."
The Grand Minister's gaze then moved past him. He looked over the devastated landscape, the shattered ice fields, the ruined mountains and the scars carved across the continent. He said nothing at first. That silence was considerably more uncomfortable than a reprimand would have been. Bardock slowly followed his gaze, and the confidence that had allowed him to stare down an entire Justice League now seemed to evaporate from his face.
The Grand Minister finally sighed, not angrily but with the weary disappointment of a teacher discovering that a student had done precisely the thing he had been warned not to do.
"Bardock," he said quietly. "What have you done?"
The Saiyan's eyes widened. For perhaps the first time that day, he looked genuinely trapped. His mouth opened, closed again, and then he glanced toward the League as though silently hoping someone might rescue him from the conversation. Nobody did. Superman almost felt sorry for him.
"I can explain," Bardock said at last, and the Grand Minister's expression remained unchanged.
"I'm sure you can."
Bardock shifted slightly on one knee. "It wasn't originally meant to become this large."
The Grand Minister looked over the enormous crater where an entire section of the continent had been remodelled by their battle. "I see."
Bardock swallowed. "They attacked me."
"..."
"And I was trying to make them understand that I wasn't their enemy." Another pause. "By destroying a planet." Bardock lowered his eyes. "It was uninhabited."
The Grand Minister closed his eyes for a moment, and the expression on Bardock's face became increasingly that of a child who had just realised that technical correctness was not going to save him. Around them, the Justice League watched in complete silence. Batman had expected many things from the mysterious being who had just arrived, but watching the man who had casually destroyed a planet become visibly nervous because his superior was disappointed had not been among them. It was perhaps the first indication any of them had received that Bardock's tremendous power did not place him beyond accountability. Whatever hierarchy existed on the other side of the dimensional tear that brought the Saiyan here, this individual clearly stood above the Saiyan within it.
The Grand Minister eventually lifted one hand, and Bardock instinctively fell silent. The angel snapped his fingers. A brilliant white light spread outward from the point where he stood, travelling across the Antarctic landscape in an expanding wave. It did not behave like fire, wind or any conventional physical phenomenon. Instead, reality itself seemed to reverse beneath it. Broken mountains rose from the ground and reassembled, fragments of stone sliding together without friction. Craters filled themselves. Shattered ice flowed backward into enormous sheets, water returning to frozen surfaces as though time had been instructed to retrace its steps.
The scars carved through the continent vanished one after another, while the blackened earth regained its original colour and the clouds of dust and steam dissolved into nothing. Even the atmospheric disturbances created by the battle disappeared, leaving behind the clean, frigid air that had existed before Bardock and the League had begun fighting. The transformation was so complete that within moments there was no evidence that an apocalyptic battle had occurred there at all.
The League stood exactly where they had landed, surrounded once more by an untouched Antarctic wilderness. Superman looked around slowly, unable to conceal his astonishment. Batman's mind raced through the implications, but there was no tactical framework into which the display could comfortably fit. This was not merely strength. The Grand Minister had simply decided that the damage should no longer exist, and reality had complied.
Bardock slowly rose from his knee, though he remained deferential, and the Grand Minister turned his attention toward the gathered heroes. "We have much to discuss," he said, addressing them collectively. His tone contained no accusation and no demand, only an almost amused recognition of the situation that had developed. "And I suspect that none of you will find it particularly useful to continue doing so here."
Superman glanced toward Bardock, then toward the restored Antarctic landscape. "Who are you?" he asked.
The Grand Minister gave him a small, polite smile. "Someone who has come to brief a rather troublesome young man before he creates another diplomatic incident."
Bardock's eyes widened slightly. "Grand Minister."
The angel's smile deepened by the smallest degree. "I said troublesome, Bardock. Not hopeless." The Saiyan visibly relaxed, although he wisely said nothing further. The Grand Minister then turned toward the League once more. "Come. There are questions that deserve answers, and explanations that cannot be given in the middle of an empty frozen tundra."
He glanced briefly toward Bardock. "Besides, I believe our young Saiyan has already demonstrated rather thoroughly that negotiations conducted in a battlefield are rarely productive."
Bardock rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost sheepish now, and the Justice League exchanged their own silent glances before finally accepting the strange invitation. For the first time since Bardock had fallen through the breach, the confrontation ceased to be a contest of strength. It was about to become something considerably more difficult: a conversation in which everyone involved would have to decide what, exactly, they wanted from one another.