And in the end, Batman had not accepted Catwoman's love. The two walked separate roads, and now the vast Batcave sat eerily desolate. He could only work here alone.
"Not planning to train a few more protégés?"
"No. I'm getting old."
Thea clicked her tongue. By her reckoning, Batman still had plenty of years left—though the specifics were hard to explain.
"If an opportunity came your way, would you be willing to become a god?" She had wanted to ask this since the day they met, but the fear of disrupting the future had kept the words locked behind her teeth.
"A god? Like those people who attacked Oa? Not interested."
Thea waved him off. "Don't be so quick to refuse. A god can know the answer to every question in existence. Isn't that what you've been doing all these years? Even when you don't know something right away, you keep digging until you do. If you became a god, you could reshape the world to match your vision. Well? Tempted?"
Batman gave it serious thought. "It wouldn't affect my personality?"
"Look at me and Diana. Do we seem affected?"
This time the silence stretched longer. "...I don't have willpower as strong as yours."
Thea nearly burst out laughing. Batman admitting his willpower wasn't strong enough. Someone should have been recording that.
"Bruce, everything about you is fine except for the chronic paranoia. It's godhood, not a brainwashing machine. You'll still be you. Remember what I'm telling you: soon, when the choice is laid before you, be calm—but show a little ambition, too. I've always wanted to say this. You are not ordinary."
Thea pulled a beer from her spatial storage ring and raised it in invitation. Batman said he didn't drink.
A man that disciplined was never going to make an exception for her. She took a small sip.
"Should I prepare some kind of investiture ceremony? Take a knee? Maybe change into formal wear?" He gave a self-deprecating smile, though his face was so stiff it came out looking awful.
Thea stood and patted his shoulder lightly. "Time is short. When the moment comes, it won't just be you. Several others will need to make their choice, too."
"Personally, I'd love to see you and the other old friends seize the opportunity. But if any of you insist on sticking to your original calling and won't take the step, I won't push."
Batman caught the subtext. "Who else? What's your plan?"
"There is no plan. I'm not the lead in this one—you are. I'll build the stage. After that, it's your choice. Get ready. Destiny's wheel is about to turn."
Thea's words were cryptic enough to make Batman frown. "Who's the target? Darkseid?"
"...It involves him. By the way, did you guess, or did you deduce that?" Thea didn't press for an answer. Batman didn't offer one.
"A little over a month from now. I'll come find you then."
With that, she left Gotham. Batman's life had been one misfortune after another. He deserved a better ending. He shouldn't die bedridden from illness, and he shouldn't shoulder the weight of the Dark Multiverse until it eroded his very soul. That wasn't fair.
"The strongest mortal" sounded impressive. In practice it was a tragedy. She couldn't have done anything about it before, but she could now. Once Batman ascended to godhood, Thea could sever his connection to the Dark Multiverse.
Then again, godhood was not purely a blessing. For some, it was another form of duty.
Thea had no intention of asking her own family to take on divine mantles. That was too exhausting.
The people in Star City had nothing to worry about. The Endless were unreliable in many ways, but they held one principle sacred: take care of your own. Thea's friends and family would receive destiny's favor—not "stumble across money on the sidewalk" levels of luck, but a guarantee of lifelong happiness and health.
Her gaze pierced the cosmos and found Apokolips. A vast shroud of death hung over the planet, and every sign pointed to one conclusion: Darkseid was dying.
The evil overlord was currently thrashing his demons into pitiful submission, and he had extracted most of the Anti-Life Equation—only a stub remained inside the Anti-Monitor. But Thea knew. He was approaching the end.
The method Michael Demiurgos had taught him contained a critical flaw, invisible to anyone below a certain realm.
The dying Anti-Monitor had also sabotaged the Equation from the inside.
With multiple parties tacitly allowing it, Darkseid's survival would be nothing short of a miracle.
Thea had a hand in this, too. She had orchestrated the opening act of the campaign to seize the Anti-Life Equation, so the finale had to end in her hands as well. The death of a multiversal-tier deity was the perfect demonstration of her existence.
She wondered how many godhoods Darkseid's death would scatter. A death on this scale would destabilize the entire multiverse; his godhoods would need successors to keep the cosmos from unraveling.
Batman, Superman, Faora, Deathstroke—all viable candidates.
While she sat on the grass mulling this over, her adjutant approached. "You called for me?"
"Give it a moment. Two more guests are on the way."
Before long, Superman and Supergirl touched down.
Only then did Thea explain her purpose. She gestured toward Faora. "I once made Faora a promise. At the time I didn't have the power to follow through. Now I finally can. I brought all of you here to ask for your opinions."
Before they could question her, she dropped the reveal. "I'm going to restore Krypton."
Three sharp intakes of breath—simultaneous.
"Really? You can actually restore Krypton?" Supergirl reacted fastest and most intensely, her voice tinged with disbelief.
Faora was equally stunned. She had assumed she was being assigned a mission. This was the last thing she'd expected.
Superman, ever the rational one, immediately started running scenarios. Would it trigger a cosmic catastrophe? Would it crush any flowers or grass? A whole mess of random worries tumbled out.
"And I can resurrect Zod, too. Clark, Faora—what do you think?"
Superman's reply came fast. "Bring him back. Killing him is a lifelong regret. That was never what I intended."
Faora, by contrast, hesitated visibly. After a long pause she said quietly, "The General's goal was to restore Krypton. If Krypton has already been restored, his sense of purpose may have nowhere to go. I don't know if we should..."
Supergirl rested a hand on her shoulder in silent comfort.
Thea held up two fingers. "There's no rush on Zod. Take your time. Here are your two options. First: I send you back to the moment before Krypton's destruction. Whatever caused the explosion—whoever, whatever—I can undo it. I'll restore your bodies to their original states and erase your memories of these years. Clark could grow up with both parents by his side. Kara could continue her life on Krypton. Same for Faora."