The sky above the Watchtower hung dark and uncertain, as if the cosmos itself were holding its breath.
Inside, tension simmered.
Superman stood with arms crossed, his expression unreadable. Wonder Woman leaned over the meeting table, her lasso glowing faintly at her hip. Batman, half in shadow, spoke first.
"You're saying Darkseid tried to recruit him."
"Yes," Zatanna confirmed, arms folded. She stood beside Raga, still towering and silent. "And when he refused, they sent the Furies."
"She's not exaggerating," said Doctor Fate, who materialized behind them in a golden shimmer. "I've studied the fractures. Apokolips is moving. Quietly. Purposefully. The invasion has already begun."
Superman's jaw clenched. "Why Earth? Again?"
"It's not Earth," Zatanna said. She nodded toward Raga. "It's him."
Raga remained still. His eyes scanned each of the League's champions.
Batman studied him closely. "And what exactly are you?"
Raga turned toward him.
"I was forged in another universe to destroy the divine. I adapt to all harm. No power breaks me twice."
Batman's silence said everything.
"Darkseid doesn't want to kill him," Doctor Fate continued. "He wants to turn him into a living vector of conquest. The Anti-Life Equation made flesh. If Raga accepts him… the multiverse could fall."
"And if he doesn't?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Then he becomes a threat Darkseid must erase."
There was silence.
Finally, Superman stepped forward.
"We fight together," he said. "If Darkseid comes, we face him as one."
Raga looked at him for a long moment. "I am not your ally. Not yet. But I will not let this world fall because of me."
Wonder Woman smiled faintly. "A good beginning, then."
Later, back on Earth, Raga and Zatanna stood on a quiet cliff overlooking the Atlantic.
The stars above flickered like dying embers.
The Boom Beacon from Apokolips—still inert—sat buried beneath stone and warding symbols.
Zatanna sat cross-legged in the grass, eyes closed. "They accepted you."
"No," Raga said. "They accepted the idea of me. I am still becoming."
He looked down at his hands.
"I was forged to be a monster. Now I wear a name like a robe I haven't earned."
Zatanna opened one eye and looked up. "You chose a name. That's more than most people ever do."
He sat beside her.
"The name isn't protection. It's a mirror. It shows me what I could be… and what I am not yet."
She reached out, placing a hand over his.
"Then keep walking toward it."
Later still, under the stillness of midnight, Death appeared.
She stood barefoot on the water, pale and radiant, dressed in black. The moon bent its light toward her, not the other way around.
Raga stepped down to meet her, his golden eyes softened by something… unfamiliar.
"You watch me," he said.
"I remember you," she said quietly. "Even though you came from a world not mine."
He tilted his head. "Why?"
"You were a weapon. You fought everything… except dying." Her voice was wind and grace. "You resisted me even as you longed to be freed. And now… you're not just resisting fate. You're choosing."
He took a cautious step forward.
"Do you fear me now?"
Death smiled.
"No. I never did."
She stepped close enough for him to feel the cold warmth she carried. Not emptiness. Peace.
"You were never meant to survive, Raga," she said gently. "But you did. And in doing so, you wrote a story no universe expected."
Raga lowered his gaze. "Then what do I become?"
"Whatever you choose. But remember—every soul that walks beside me eventually answers one final question: Were you free?"
Then she kissed his cheek.
And vanished.
The next morning, the air screamed.
Boom Tubes opened across the sky.
Not one.
Dozens.
Across Gotham, Metropolis, Themyscira, Atlantis, and Coast City, they tore through space like jagged scars.
From them poured Parademons, weaponized New Gods, and mechanized death.
In the skies over Earth, the invasion began.
And from the greatest tear of all, descending in silhouette wreathed in omega fire—
Darkseid himself.
The Watchtower alarms blared.
Superman flew at near-light speed toward Metropolis.
Wonder Woman rallied the Amazons.
Green Lanterns mobilized defenses around the planet.
Batman activated every contingency plan Earth had ever dared imagine.
But in Gotham…
Raga stood still, staring at the Boom Tube ripping into the sky above the bay.
Zatanna appeared beside him, staff in hand, wards humming.
"You don't have to fight alone."
"I never did," he replied quietly.
The wheel on his back spun once—calmly, not from damage, but readiness.
For the first time since arriving in this universe, Raga smiled without weight.
Then he turned toward the fire in the sky.
"Darkseid has come."
Zatanna's eyes burned with magic.
"Then let's show him Earth doesn't kneel."
And together—
They rose.