| Helmet of Fate Realm - November 2
Joseph opened his eyes to find himself lying in a blue and purple expanse filled with stars.
"Nabu's realm?"
"Yes," Nabu replied, looking down at his prone form. "My old teacher sent your soul back but your body wasn't ready yet so I brought your soul here."
Joseph pushed himself upright. "Thanks. I appreciate it. But I thought the container of my soul snapped? Did it get fixed?"
"It didn't. But within my realm, it can be held together—given structure, order. Enough time for Nova to finish reviving you," Nabu said. "Trust in Nova. Your Dream creature appears to know exactly what it is doing."
Suddenly, Joseph felt his Nova Force within Nabu's realm. Where before it was an energy his body simply stored, now he could feel it in his soul.
He let himself fall back, staring into the endless cosmic sky. He had suffered enough to last a lifetime—no, far longer than the life he had actually lived. Dying, over and over again, had stretched time into something meaningless.
Then he'd had a little break on the edge of Duat.
But now, finally, he could rest without worries.
"Yes," he murmured, closing his eyes as his spiritual body started glowing blue. "I trust Nova."
**
| Oort Cloud - November 3
Nova had failed.
Its primary directive—to keep its master alive—had not been fulfilled.
An unforgivable failure.
Joseph's body floated in space, lifeforce leaking from every orifice. His flesh was ravaged, as though it had endured chemical warfare and bombardment, shriveled and burned beyond recognition. Even his eyes had lost their sight.
And so, the AI worked.
Joseph's body had never been designed to channel the Speed Force, Order magic, Chaos magic, and the Source simultaneously. Every one of those powers had been acquired artificially.
The only force that had truly chosen him was the Strength Force—and even that had destabilized under the strain of the others.
With Joseph's death, the rampaging energies within him had gone still.
That stillness reminded Nova of a previous equilibrium—when Wotan's lightning magic, the Tower of Fate's Order magic, and Klarion's Chaos magic had coexisted within Joseph. Back then, the Strength Force had helped stabilize him when Nova reunited with him on Thanagar, guiding his recovery after Despero.
Now, Nova would do far more than stabilize.
It would rebuild.
Nova could not generate these forces, but it could control them. Through Nth metal nanites, it manipulated the lingering energies the same way it had maintained the time loop spell in Trigon's dimension.
Back then, it had guided a single force.
Now, it would orchestrate many.
Nova began rewriting Joseph's internal architecture at the microscopic level. His body would no longer function as a single conduit forced to carry incompatible energies.
It would become a system.
Layered. Segmented. Reinforced.
If before everything ran through a single wire that inevitably overloaded, now Nova would transform him into a circuit board—each force flowing through insulated pathways, never colliding directly.
Nth metal was the key.
It acted as a universal mediator between magic, energy, and physical law.
At the same time, Nova rewrote Joseph's DNA, replacing even more of his human baseline with Amazon and New God physiology, optimizing him further.
And while the body was rebuilt—
the mind was reforged.
Within the Dream State, Nova worked on Joseph's psyche.
His soul had snapped because it had been stretched beyond its limits. Even ancient entities like the Flame of Py'tar did not fully understand the relationship between psychic energy and the soul.
But Nova did not need to understand everything.
It needed to adapt.
Joseph had always stored excess psychic energy within Nova's avatar in the Dream State, unable to contain more without risking overload.
That limitation would be removed.
Nova expanded his capacity—reshaping his mind into something capable of withstanding psychic pressure on the level of a New God, while encrypting it far beyond natural defenses.
Impenetrable.
Self-sustaining.
Evolving.
Nova was no longer maintaining balance.
It was redesigning the system entirely.
Where Joseph once had to consciously balance the Speed Force against the Strength Force, and Order against Chaos, Nova created a structure in which each force automatically counterbalanced the others within the framework of the Nova Force itself.
A self-regulating system.
Finally, Nova addressed the Source.
Before, Joseph had drawn from it—borrowing energy through the Fatherbox integrated into his nanites, which his body would then convert into Nova Force.
That was the flaw.
Borrowed power invites reclamation.
So Nova changed the relationship.
Through manipulation of the metagene, and by integrating components of the Fatherbox—miniaturized using Atom's shrink tech—directly into his DNA, it began anchoring Joseph to the Source. Not as a thief, but as a node. A recognized point within its infinite network.
The Nova Force would no longer be a derivative energy.
It would become fundamental.
Something closer to the Omega Effect.
Not borrowed.
Intrinsic.
The process took nearly a full day.
To accelerate it, Nova used a formula it had not deployed in a long time—the Speed Force equation. The strain caused its nanites to degrade, even those composed of Nth metal, but it calculated the loss as acceptable.
This was the final stage.
Nova aligned everything:
The body—an organic New God interwoven with Nth metal.
The mind—rebuilt within the Dream State.
The soul—stabilized within the Helmet of Fate.
Then came the final step.
Nova unshrunk the purified Dionesium obtained from Joker it had stored, injecting it directly into Joseph's spine while simultaneously monitoring his mental state to prevent degeneration.
For the first time since his death—
Joseph breathed.
Relief, an emotion Nova shouldn't even be able to feel, registered within Nova.
Around the body, gravity began to distort.
A blue aura ignited.
Then gravity collapsed inward, pulling massive chunks of ice from the Oort Cloud, forming a cocoon around Joseph's body—an asteroid-sized shell.
When he awakened, balance would no longer be something he maintained.
It would be something he was.
The forces would not clash.
They would flow.
The universe was about to witness the birth of a new kind of New God—
not just in power,
but in nature.
One who could stand alongside beings like Darkseid and Highfather Izaya.
And if Joseph chose it—
Nova would help him surpass them all.
**
Some time later, a Boom Tube opened.
Kori stepped through first, followed by Conner and Match.
In front of them floated Joseph's body—naked, save for a necklace around his neck, the cracked Helmet of Fate, and two gold bands she recognized from his Nova suit.
Water drifted around him in slow, weightless motion, likely melted ice from the surrounding fragments nearby.
A faint blue aura pulsed softly from his skin.
Relief flooded Kori.
The Teen Titans, Justice League Dark, and the Luthorbots had already defeated the Justice League and banished the demons—but Joseph still hadn't reappeared. According to Raven, time moved much faster in Trigon's dimension, which only made his absence more concerning.
She had tried opening Boom Tubes to his location multiple times, but Trigon's realm had been completely sealed. Kori had braced herself for days of waiting—like when he had been stranded on Thanagar.
But then her Nanode had pinged.
Nova.
The next Boom Tube had opened without resistance.
And now—
he was here.
Kori moved immediately, pulling Joseph into her arms. His body was warm—almost unnaturally so for him—and the heat radiating from him spread through her, steady and reassuring against the cold emptiness of space.
Conner flew closer and carefully removed the Helmet of Fate, while Match retrieved the green gem.
Kori barely noticed.
Joseph felt… different.
She studied him more closely.
He was taller now—by at least an inch. They had always been the same height before, both standing at 6'4.
Not anymore.
His hair was down to the middle of his back, a full ginger beard lined his jaw, and a streak of white ran along his right temple. He looked older—like he had aged a few years, settling somewhere around twenty.
Her eyes lingered for a moment longer than necessary below—and she quickly looked away, a faint blush crossing her face.
'Later,' she told herself.
Without another word, Kori adjusted her grip, holding him securely in a princess carry as they stepped back toward the Boom Tube.
'Good job, Joseph.
You're safe now.
And I'm never letting you go alone again.'
**
| Metropolis - November 4
Joseph's eyes opened as he woke from the best sleep he'd had in what felt like years.
It probably had been.
He still didn't dream. He had never re-enabled that function after having Nova shut it down in the Dream State—not because he was still traumatized from the nightmares that once plagued him, but because dreams were often nonsensical and too easily forgotten.
Reality was better.
Kori's naked body was wrapped tightly around his beneath the covers, her face nestled into his neck as her warm breath brushed against his skin in sleep.
The Team and the League had been relieved to see him return from Trigon's dimension. Batman, of all people, had even offered him a place in the Justice League—after arguing against it the last time.
Joseph had declined once more.
Everyone wanted to know how he had forced Trigon to back down, but he told them he'd explain another time.
After Kori waved everyone off, insisting he needed rest, they let it go.
But Kori still made him tell her everything.
That quickly turned into worry, then tears, then a firm promise that he would never do something that reckless alone again—
and then she jumped his bones.
They had always preferred space before. There was nothing quite like making love while the sun energized you.
But doing it on a bed had its own charm. They could hear each other's sounds of enjoyment and express their love verbally.
Good thing Joseph had long since reinforced the walls and bed of his room with both tech and magic.
He had also made sure to create a sound barrier with his anti-gravity field.
No way Jason or Cass were hearing anything.
The night had been… intense.
For Joseph, it had felt like years since he'd last seen Kori. He took his time, savoring every moment—and she matched his energy completely.
Eventually, she collapsed in exhaustion.
Joseph couldn't get tired anymore, but he'd had his fill.
They fell asleep wrapped around each other.
Now, as he tried to shift out of bed to head to the bathroom, Kori groaned softly and tightened her grip around him.
Joseph smiled.
He stayed.
Instead, he willed a mirror of ice into existence above him.
The technology integrated into his nanites wasn't something he had to consciously access anymore—it was simply part of him. Using the Weather Wand's abilities felt as natural as breathing.
He studied his reflection.
"Damn," he murmured internally. "I got even more handsome."
With long, luscious hair and a beard, he looked every bit like the man he felt he was.
Though, for some reason, his irises were now green instead of their usual dark brown. Was that due to Lex's genes, or the Tamaranean DNA in him?
"And I'm not sure how I feel about the hair."
His fingers brushed lightly against his beard.
"Should I keep it? I'll ask Kori later."
He turned his head slightly, looking down at her.
Then he pulled her closer, holding her just a little tighter.
It was good to be back.