The Kents (minus one Conner), Dick and Koriand'r had bade their farewells late into the night. Yawns are contagious, and as the four of them waved goodbyes, they spread around the room (not the foyer, for Raven had manifested two portals for the departing) like the plague in a sardine tin.

Not bothering to watch them leave, Damian rubbed his eyes and murmured, to his dad, "Father I'm going to sleep. For once I think I need it." And shoved his way past Jason and Stephanie.

"Awww he's sweepy. " They laughed together, quickly sobered by their own yawns.

Watching Clark's back disappearing through the void, Conner frowned, finding his thoughts winding down a strange path. He couldn't seem to deviate from that image: Damian leaning against his dad's shoulder, tired and grumbling, but comfortable at his side. "Father" Damian had called Mr Wayne- he was formal like that.

"Father" would sound too strange on Conner's tongue; too weird to be a label associated with Clark. So..."dad" then? Because that was, technically, his dad...one of them.

Fuck. Lex Luthor.

Alternatively: fuck Lex Luthor.

It had been weeks since Conner had seen the man- cynical, cold, contemptuous as ever. Wanting nothing more to do with him, Lex had made it quite clear- reclining in his office chair, glaring menacingly- that the 'failed experiment' was of no concern to him anymore: Conner could go away and stay away, playing superheroes with the rest of the caped alien loons.

Kon was just fine with that.

And as Clark gave the boy a final quick smile over the shoulder before the portal closed, Conner wondered if it would do well to allow himself a little more hope for the future.

He received a sudden tap on the shoulder and was greeted with concerned eyes.

It was strange that they were so new to him, and yet so familiar.

Cassandra's look seemed to ask if he was okay.

"I'm cool." He grinned shallowly. "Just thinking."

"It's okay." She patted his shoulder- a gesture that ordinarily may have been awkward, but somehow worked for the girl.

Genuine warmth bled in to his smile, "I'm starting to think so too."

***

Mouths torn wide open with wails of despair were muted by the roar of water mountains crashing in to one another- a cacophony of godly war.

Their peaks reached the heavens, then succumbed to the demand of gravity, engulfing the building's nearest to the shore: stripped of the right to make their home upon Gaia's stable earth, dragged in to the warring waves. Carrying immense ships in their vertical terrors like toys in the grasp of giants, the hellish waters rose to tower taller than skyscrapers. Not yet close enough to the shore, they stalked every closer with every resounding cry of the sea.

Gods were at war.

Old gods. Powerful gods. Gods unrestricted by human chains.

The Aegean itself was as war, tearing apart its own waters and hurling them against its own body. At the epicentre of the unholy disruption were figures whose feet touched the seabed and whose vast torsos emerged from the depths.

Poseidon and Neptune, red eyes consumed by madness, wreaked havoc over their dominion.

Sudden warmth ran down Diana's cheeks. Tears from nowhere. Poseidon before her eyes, immense and mighty and awful.

She narrowly avoided the deathly blow of a trident dozens of times her size, only to be struck by a tsunami generated by Neptune's staggering. The Roman retaliated against his Greek counterpart with a roar that shook the foundations of the city centre miles away.

Inhaling a tankful of water, Diana spluttered to the water's surface- pushing her head out of the rolling wave- before shooting out of it, lungs hacking up the saltiness.

"WonderWoman, " The Martian's voice was panicked over the coms link, "Do not engage. We do not know what we're dealing with here."

"Strictly damage control until Constantine tells us anything." Batman reiterated.

Diana was met in the sky, above the commotion, by Superman, "Are you- what is it? - we need to be helping?"

Eyes glassy, the Amazon murmured to herself in her mother tongue, "Poseidon. Lord Poseidon. King of the Seas. Uncle. Oh father...father..."

She appealed to any connection within her heart to Olympus, that Zeus might reach his hand to the Earth and restore order. But the gods had long since left humanity to its own devices.

So why now had they awoken? Why the madness in their eyes? Why the great gods of the sea?

"Diana?"

"I'm fine." She shut Clark off. "We need to help the civilians."

With each clash of the gods' weapons thundering across the Aegean, Clark sped to the land to answer the cries for help.

As Diana lifted fallen debris, freeing an entrapped family. A frail chorus of, "Teşekkür (thank you) WonderWoman!" Met her back as she moved a truck to the side, which had been blocking the road.

"Ah bollocks this is bad." Constantine cursed over the coms. Across the street from her, the Shazam stopped and gave WonderWoman a worried look at the Scouse's comment. "It's the cults. Both of them. They've fucked over summoning gods- set them loose- loose and bloody barmy."

Diana glanced towards the sea and blanched- the gods had gone mad?

A mountainous tide inched closer, generated by a swoop of Neptune's arm, and WonderWoman scanned to waters for any trace of her Atlantean teammate.

"Aquaman, you copy?" Cyborg's voice called out to no response. "That wave's coming in quick."

Drawing forth magical constructs to block the devastating waves, Constantine muttered his wish that Elsa were here to freeze the ice. Stood with his feet firmly planted, arms wide with pentagrams spinning at his fingertips, sweat dropped down Constantine's forehead and soaked through his shirt. This wouldn't last. He had made far too many enemies in hell to be happy to meet a watery grave so soon.

"Zee!" John called the magician, a few metres away. "These won't last long!"

Increasing the size of her already extensive constructs (more water had begun to spill over the top), Zatanna shouted back, "I know! We have to send them back!" She referred to the warring gods. "Or stop the madness!"

Neptune and Poseidon were not contained to human forms like Aphrodite or Anubis. They were not limited in stature and power like Tezcatlipoca had been. Even for a failed attempt at godly channelling, they hadn't been vaporised and subsequently returned to their realms -as Thor.

There were dozens of different methods of godly summoning and hosting employed throughout millennia by all civilisations- from ancient West African vampiric societies to renaissance era gargoyle clans to modern Louisiana voodoo witches.

Constantine hadn't brushed up on his deity summoning knowledge, and Zatanna certainly had gaps in her knowledge.

But who had spent the last month scouring the dusty pages of ancient tomes and crumbling schools for any inch of knowledge on godly bonds, but the son of Batman and the Titan's demon?

With a fierce cry, mustering all the power that lay pooled within her chest, Zatanna poured the power of the winds of the North through her construct. In the names of noble Boreas and mighty Skadi, great Aipalovik and ancient Manannán, the magician froze the sea.

White solidity spread from the centre of that single wave like cracks across a screen. Spindly streaks of ice branched across the water, branching out, rendering the entire body of water a solid mass for a kilometre from the shore.

Constantine's constructs fell, "Nice work Zee." His complements were echoed by the Justice League over the coms.

"I hope you didn't freeze Arthur in there." The Flash joked.

Zatanna was too faint to catch the punchline, crumbling to her knees. At her side, Constantine supported the magician, leaning her against his shoulder, "Bloody hell, I couldn't have managed a metre of that. For god's sake you've got to stop pushing yourself so bloody hard."

She pushed herself on to her feet, "Don't be stupid- just get the kids here. I've bought us some time." Zatanna grabbed John's arm, swaying on her feet, "I need to eat before I do pass out. Just get me a kebab and water. The rest of them can manage crowd control."

A.N:

Welp. There we go. A little late (I am very sorry my darlings), very shoddy, and lacking in Damirae content (sorry again). I've just had a week of mock exams and I've go about three more to go- thirteen more papers to sit. So I'm not handling life too well.

You may, however, receive a random one shot coming up to accommodate. We'll have to see. I haven't done one of those in sooooo long.

Well I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I'm really looking forward to doing some huge plot-reveal-y shenanigans soon ^-^ so there's lots more to look forward to.

Thank you my darlings!

-Bats :3