Darkseid was an unmoving wall. He stood before the Hall of Justice, proud and taunting and utterly still.

The conqueror had hovered out of an immense ring of fire, hands behind his back, and halted. The portal had closed behind him and he was silhouetted bu the red setting sun. For a moment, he surveyed his future domain impassively. Then a bellowing, hissing, horrible voice projected his message to the planet.

"Your new god is here. Submit."

Minutes before, Cyborg had been crying out to all military and heroic forces that he could reach- Darkseid was opening a portal from Apokolips.

They ought to have known that this would be coming. The number of parademons plaguing Earth had subsided dramatically. It was a moment of respite too good to be true. There had been sleep, and tears, and counting of the dead and missing, but it hadn't been fighting.

Cyborg had been relentlessly, anxiously studying and scouring every inclination of Apokaliptian thought he could catch; Victor remained connected to the hive mind of Apokoliptian technology. But the arrival of Darkseid had been spontaneous. Unplanned. He'd only caught the whirring alien technology as it prepared a portal for the dark conqueror.

Darkseid was received by the Justice League. The greatest defenders of Earth, they were, scarred, furious, broken defenders, but the Justice League all the same. Each nursed worry for their dearest ones- the Flash was expecting a baby, Superman had a ring kept in a drawer back in Smallville and wondered if he'd ever get to ask Lois; Batman didn't know if he'd told his children that he loved them enough, didn't know if he'd thanked Alfred for being a better father to him than he'd deserved- and so they resolved to fight with all of their fury for them.

They were faced with evil.

It's not at easy to be good as it is to be bad and the lines are blurry. Bruce had learnt that lesson not too long after he'd first donned the cowl all those years ago. But he thought that for this one act, facing pure evil in the face of Darkseid, he might consider himself to be a good man, but for a moment.

Since the first attack all those years ago, when the ragtag band of heroes had first fought together, the Justice League had practised time after time how they would fight Darkseid. The simulation room had grown exhausted of their efforts. Now they hoped that all of the training would pay off.

At the ready behind them were ranks of Amazons, on standby. Hermes' visit to Themyscira had been enough to convince Hippolyta that the place of the Amazons was in man's world too; many however, remained, fighting parademons on their island.

Darkseid was a rock. They would make the first move.

As the Justice League had practised a hundred times, in the fiery glow of dusk, they all surged forwards- but for the Flash and Superman. Darkseid would have expected them first. The joint light of the two Lanterns stunned his remaining eye. WonderWoman's blade was thirsty to blind it as it had done the other.

She leapt from behind the bulking, armoured figure and in to his shoulders. In the same second, Batman (fortified in the strongest of his suits) held the warlord fast by a leg. Cyborg secured the other. Superman and Shazam bound Darkseid's arms. With furious precision, Aquaman slammed the spears of his trident in to the gap between his helmet and chest piece- directly the back of Darkseid's neck.

The conqueror cried out, head thrown back, and Diana jabbed her sword at his face.

An omega beam erupted from Darkseid's eye, keen and angry. Diana fell from his shoulders, a red beam falling to strike her blade. With a kick, his legs were free. An omega beam blasted from his eye, trained on Superman: the Kryptonian had no choice but to run. With an arm free, Darkseid drew it back and punched Captain Marvel squarely in the chest. Shazam slammed through the air.

Darkseid swatted down the Lanterns' constructions and moved to whack Hal down with a single hit. A quick shield saved them both but was destroyed a moment later and both were slammed to the ground.

Teething with bloodlust, the warlord roared his challenge to the shaken heroes. Victory gleamed in his grim smile.

***
Golden eyes, embedded in the black fur of a jackal's head, regarded the other mighty spirits of Egypt. Anubis, god of Death, felt the wooden panels of the raft beneath his sandals as the gods drifted through the layers of the Duat.

"Why do you wish to return to them?"

The melancholy voice of Nephthys called to him, droning and soft like the muffled gurgling of a stream between banks of reeds to one indoors. His mother, goddess of the slumbering night and pained mourning made no notice of Set's malicious glare upon her son: Anubis may have been Nephthys' child, but he was not her husband's.

The jackal-headed god of death looked sadly to Hathor in the hopes of finding one who would understand the complexity of love.

Osiris demanded of Anubis the same question that Nephthys had crowned head lifted and eyes narrowed. What had the mortal world to offer a god?

The setting sun over the godly realm set the river ablaze.He felt as if he'd spent so long away from it; in fact, it hadn't been longer a month since those eight, yellow robed occultists had summoned him to Earth. Anubis might have revelled in the beauty of his world, had the glimmering water not reminded him of the fires that would blaze the Earth.

He'd seen so much in Damian's world. Love. Pain. Wonder. He'd felt so humanly, tied to Damian's heart.

Osiris had asked what humanity would give to Anubis, but he cared not for that. Earth was in its dying hour- the god had to do something for it. Yet he saw that, for their greatness and knowledge, the gods did not understand that sentiment, not even the goddess of love.

And so he pleaded the case for humanity though a lens which brought smoke to their noses and fire to their irises.

He spoke of a usurper.

Their petty challenger. The would-be All-god. He who had plucked deities from the heavens and sentenced their execution.

Darkseid of Apokolips, a new god who presumed to reign as supreme over their ashes.

But he was, as Anubis's fellow gods assured him, a usurper that had bitten off far more than he could chew- someone who ought to be put in his place.

A.N:
Hiya my wonderful darlings. I'm sorry that this chapter was late, it's been an odd couple of days for me.

I want you all to know that I appreciate you so so much. Thank you my lovelies. I hope you'll enjoy the upcoming chapters my dears.

-Bats :)