Three days later, all prisoners had finally been tried, and a general peace had returned to the fractured Flashpoint world. The tension that had once choked the air was dissipating, though the aftermath lingered like the shadow of a passing storm.
A somewhat disheartened Diana and her Amazon sisters prepared to find a new island to call their home. Their once-proud Themyscira had been scarred beyond recognition, and starting anew was their only path forward. Terra and Geo-force, sensing the Amazons' vulnerability, offered to help in the reconstruction, volunteering to shape a new sanctuary somewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.
The Atlanteans, once led by a fierce royal line, now had no bloodline heirs. Even Mera had fallen by Diana's own hand in the chaos of war. With the monarchy broken, the remaining Atlanteans began to discuss establishing a parliamentary government, hoping to prevent future wars that could be fueled by the personal vendettas of powerful rulers.
Doctor Thirteen, after tireless persuasion from his daughter, finally broke down in tears. His stubborn pride crumbled as the weight of his misjudgments came crashing down on him. Shin, who had no desire to punish an innocent man blinded by ignorance, simply raised his hand and spared him.
Thanks to Shin's mediation, all three major factions now understood the cost of their mistakes. The war was over not because goodwill had triumphed entirely, but because those who had once yearned for battle no longer had the strength, allies, or courage to reignite it.
It was true that the peace came at a heavy price. Shin had personally slain half of the Atlantean and Amazonian forces to ensure that their thirst for vengeance was quenched for decades to come. The survivors either feared him enough to abandon their ambitions or were simply exhausted by the endless bloodshed.
His purges did not stop there. Military leaders plotting against metahumans, warmongering politicians, and even the gorilla warlord who once ruled swaths of Africa, under Shin's omnipresent global surveillance, all met swift and brutal ends. For at least the next several years, no one would dare stir the flames of another global conflict.
It was then that news arrived from beyond Earth. A Green Lantern, freshly arrived from space, informed Shin of an ominous threat, the Dark Lord, a cosmic predator devouring entire planets. This entity was nearly conceptual in nature. Perhaps not quite at the god-tier level of Marvel's Elder Gods or DC's endless cosmic pantheon, but certainly formidable enough to stand in the second tier of universal terrors. Should this being turn its gaze fully upon this universe, its destruction would be inevitable.
There was a sliver of hope, however. The Green Lantern appeared to have been recognized by the Entity and held the potential to evolve into a White Lantern, the embodiment of life's raw energy. Such a power could serve as a natural counter to the Dark Lord. Whether this universe's fate would be salvation or ruin now depended entirely on its own champions.
Before Shin could dwell further on that thought, a streak of golden lightning tore through the air. In an instant, the Flash was gone. Shin felt the very fabric of the Flashpoint world grow insubstantial, as if reality itself were unraveling around them.
An afterimage of the world lingered, a great river of existence splitting apart and twisting. For a moment, Shin and Scarlet Witch could see the strange metamorphosis, the branching streams of time reshaping themselves. But before they could fully comprehend it, the collapsing dimension expelled them entirely.
When their senses cleared, they were no longer in the war-torn Flashpoint. The familiar skyline and atmosphere told Shin all he needed to know, they had returned to the original DC movie universe.
"It seems that when a world resets, outsiders like us aren't exactly welcome," Shin remarked with a faint shrug.
Scarlet Witch frowned slightly. "Can we still locate Barry's world now?"
"Probably not," Shin admitted, shaking his head. Inwardly, he added, even if I could find it again, I wouldn't bother going back.
In his mind, the next stage after Flashpoint in this DC world was the invasion of Apokolips, a direct confrontation with the true Darkseid from the comics. Shin had no illusions about the difference between himself and DC's plot-armored heroes. Those characters had the protection of narrative necessity, as long as the story demanded their survival, not even a god's wrath could erase them. But if one of Darkseid's Omega Beams found him, there would be no "miraculous comeback." It would be the end, plain and simple.
"Forget it," he said aloud. "We shouldn't even think about going back to Barry's universe. It's far too dangerous. Even ignoring the mess caused by Barry's time tampering, the sheer number of superheroes and supervillains there tells you all you need to know that it's not a peaceful place."
It wasn't Shin who voiced the final word on the matter, but Wanda herself.
When she had first left Marvel, her only goal was to travel alongside Shin, to see strange new worlds. She had followed him into Flashpoint partly out of curiosity, partly out of a newfound confidence in her growing powers. But now, with her adrenaline spent and the reality of Flashpoint's horrors still fresh in her memory, she felt no urge to explore the "normal" DC universe.
Her travels had taught her a bitter truth that the fewer superheroes a world had, the safer it tended to be.
She thought of her own home reality, in just a few short years, they had endured Magneto's attacks on global leaders, Apocalypse's attempted remaking of the planet, Galactus's hunger-driven arrival, and Dormammu's incursion into the magical realms.
By comparison, the DC movie universe they now stood in seemed almost peaceful. A single alien invasion, an AI uprising, both dangerous, yes, but small-scale compared to the relentless disasters of Flash's reality.
Flashpoint, she noted grimly, was beyond saving in the long term. Its population had dropped below a billion, and its environment was collapsing. The tectonic upheavals from seismic weaponry, nuclear detonations, and even the Amazons' reckless raising of Britain from the ocean floor had scarred the planet beyond repair. Had the war dragged on even a little longer, Earth itself would have been reduced to a barren wasteland.
From all this, Wanda concluded that Barry's world was destined to suffer endless crises. Even in the best of times, global calamities would come in waves, countered only by its superhuman defenders. She had no interest in joining another endless battle to "save the world." She had left her home universe to find peace, not more wars.
Shin, understanding her reasoning, agreed without hesitation. He had already taken everything of value from that chaotic realm. There was nothing to gain from returning.
In fact, he had profited immensely from the peculiar instability of Flashpoint. His Kryptonian physiology was now complete, and unlike the average member of that race, his potential matched the comic-book depiction of Superman, limitless in its upward growth.
Beyond that, he had collected an enviable cache of rare artifacts and advanced technology. Among his spoils were Aquaman's trident, Wonder Woman's enchanted weaponry, and Captain Cold's absolute-zero gun.
Most of these trophies were little more than curiosities to him, now mementos that he could hand off for study in other worlds. But three items stood apart: the Lasso of Truth, the Mother Box, and Hawkgirl's N-metal hammer. These, Shin valued greatly. Each carried a unique power, and each would serve him well in worlds yet to come.
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