"Kryptonian." Steppenwolf's dry voice cracked.

Superman turned, and saw the man clutching Hal Jordan by the neck. There was a gruesome wound on his body, where Steppenwolf had buried his axe earlier. Clark had learnt how to single out the unique willpower energy with his vision, and with this skill he could tell that Hal's battle with Steppenwolf left his ring at a dangerously low power level.

Clark instantly dropped his stranglehold on Kalibak and stood. "Let. Him. Go." Clark demanded with a pair of crimson red eyes.

Hal smirked and raised his ring. "Go long. I'll take this sucker."

"Hal! NO!!" Clark gasped.

"Initiate emergency energy discharge. Maximum output." The Green Lantern commanded his ring.

Clark wasn't going to give up on Hal. He was one of his oldest friends...and he'd lost so many of those in this meaningless war. Time slowed. Superman threw himself at Steppenwolf and Hal as the latter's power ring built up the required power for the last hurrah protocol Hal had programmed it with. It was meant as a devastating blast that would eradicate any and all life in the immediate vicinity. He knew it was no match for a kryptonian though, hence his eagerness to use it in Clark's presence.

Hal also knew that even Superman couldn't reach him in time. Nothing short of The Flash could have, and he was still busy at work evacuating all settlements remotely close to Metropolis and gathering survivors. That said, there was nothing that could cancel the detonation. Nothing.

An entire city block was consumed by green light. It funnelled outward like a dome, that fizzled out into mist within seconds.

A mile or so away, Bastion and Mineko traced their way through the empty streets. They saw the sky turn green for a split second, and felt their very bones shake. "Gottverdamt...! What was that?"

"...I am not certain." Mineko whispered, hand on her sheathed blade's hilt.

The pair were assisting with military operations until the outpost that they were stationed at fell only moments ago. Whatever they were attacked by disabled all electronics, including their communicators. They currently made their way for Wayne Tower, not aware that its occupants had all perished.

"Maybe Wayne can explain." Bastion continued in an attempt to ease his worried mind. He had seen what Diana could stand up against, time and time again. She could best anyone and anything in combat. But all of the assurance in the world would never be enough for him...he would always worry.

Mineko on the other hand had her very simple mindset. Whatever must happen shall happen. She had been happy with Barry, and nothing could change that. She knew that death was natural...but what she saw around her was far from natural.

As they came around a bend, they saw Cyborg standing in the middle of the street, back facing the duo.

"Victor...! Thank god." Bastion said, immediately dropping his guard and approaching.

Mineko squinted. "Wait."

Bastion peered over his shoulder at her, puzzled. "What?"

What he thought was Victor Stone was nothing of the kind. The machine spun, and revealed the skull-like visage of the space that once occupied Victor's body parts.

"J-Jesus!" Bastion stammered, backpedalling and raising his rifle.

Grid raised an arm cannon, signalling Bastion to open fire. The weapon obviously did nothing. The cannon discharged, firing a cone of white energy outward. Only barely, the two metahumans managed to throw themselves to cover before they were disintegrated by the rogue machine.

Mineko drew her sword and inhaled sharply. Her hand shaped itself into several hand signs before she propelled herself with great speed around the cover of a bus and into proximity of Grid.

She struck with her promethium blade, managing several vital hits before Grid processed her presence. It lashed out with a kick, but Mineko easily avoided the robot's telegraphed attack.

In the corner of her eye, she saw the bus shudder. It was a good enough message for her to get to safety. Mineko backflipped away from Grid, just in time to see the bus hover off of the ground and slam itself into Mineko and Bastion's attacker.

Bastion stood with his hand raised, his psychic energy wrapped around the empty vehicle he used as a battering ram.

The pair relaxed their shoulders and sighed. Bastion hesitantly lowered his hand, eyes not moving from the vehicle. "What the hell was that...?"

"Again, I am not certain. It appeared to be Victor."

"Yeah. Just without Victor in it." Bastion replied.

He proceeded to walk passed the bus, focusing now on Mineko. It was a fatal mistake.

The bus was propelled out of the wall with startling speed, directly hitting Bastion with its rear. His body was thrown metres away by the impact, and he was surely dead before he even hit the ground. Mineko glanced at the wall, and spied Grid, unshaken and undamaged.

The thing paced towards her, without fear. Mineko's previous attacks on Grid served only to educate its strategies, so when she struck out again, it easily sidestepped the blow and swung an arm out at her head.

With a crack, her skull was shattered in a single hit by the robotic form. Mineko collapsed without a sound.

Grid was surprised at the fragility of the two humans it had just dispatched. However, before it could move to a different target, a figure floated down from the sky. Female in shape, it was coated in a layer of almost liquid-like armour. The armour was horribly scarred and damaged. "You. You will pay for what you have done." Rahn threatened.

Grid promptly recognised that it held the decapitated head of Kanto in one hand. She had found the body of Batman, and in blinding rage, hunted his killer. They had a complicated relationship, but Bruce was the father of her child... and she had loved him undoubtedly.

Dropping the head, Rahn teleported behind Grid and thrusted a head through his back. Shrapnel was spat outward from the hole that the alien soldier had punched, also revealing sputtering circuitry. Rahn raised the machine over her head with one hand, then put her other fist through its body.

With a primal cry, she pulled her hands apart and tore Grid apart like a piece of cardboard. She dropped the pieces with no regard, attention falling to Bastion and Mineko's bodies.

"Wonder Woman to any surviving Leaguers...rendezvous at my coordinates. It's over."

It took but a minute for Rahn to arrive at Diana's location. Already there was Superman, who stood sombrely staring at the ruins of his city. Rahn instantly approached Diana. "Princess. I'm sorry...Bastion fell in battle. I avenged his death."

Diana was covered in blood. Thankfully, none of it was hers. Her face dropped and everything inside of her begged to scream, to curse the world that had allowed the second man that she had ever loved to fall. Still she somehow managed to contain it. She was a warrior, and though she had no talent in hiding her feelings, she knew that this wasn't the time to react to such terrible news. She closed her eyes. "Thank you, Rahn..."

Seeing the pain in Diana's face, Clark attempted to turn the attention away from her. "Where were you?"

Rahn answered her friend instantly, understanding of her spite. "I left for Orhys. The Empire has been dismantled entirely. None survived."

Vell promptly arrived. Her uniform was in tatters, and her own blood stained her sheet white skin. "Who else is left...?"

"Camille has remained with our people in Atlantis...I assigned all remaining soldiers to protect them. I believe Reaper is on her way here." Aquaman answered, strolling to join the other survivors. His trident was painted black with Parademon blood, and flecks of the stuff sullied his golden armour. "We are the only ones left capable of facing Darkseid."

With a burst of lightning, The Flash appeared, panting and face drenched with sweat. He planted his hands on his knees and huffed "I...finished evacuating...all of the...invasion zones...and cleaned up...most of the Parademons...there... Where's...where's Mineko...?"

He was answered by silence at first. Barry froze and glanced up at his team mates.

"I'm sorry." Rahn said.

"N-No...no..." Barry gasped. "W-Where is she...?"

Diana quickly stepped in, grasping Barry by the shoulder. "Barry, there are more important things for us to worry about first."

His eyes flooded with tears, but he said nothing.

Clark's attention was taken by Kalibak, who only just cleared himself of the rubble caused by Hal's sacrifice. Superman grimaced. "This ends now. No more innocent people die."

"C-Clark..." Barry sobbed.

"...It needs to be done. The cost was too high." Clark said remorsefully, hovering over to the downed Kalibak.

Rahn crossed her arms and nodded. "My people were far from innocent, but they did not deserve to be slaughtered without trial. Also, because of this creature, Vell is the only Green Lantern left."

Vell's brow twitched, both due to rage and the overwhelming feeling of loneliness she felt.

"It wasn't only Earth that was affected by this, Barry. The New Gods of New Genesis are extinct. The Guardians of the Universe are extinct. This man is responsible for all of that." Diana continued. "Yes, we believe in second chances for those worthy. But this monster is not worthy. This is far beyond anything that has ever happened."

Suddenly, a boom tube appeared between Superman and Kalibak. Out of it stepped a figure that stood three heads taller than the Man of Steel, and had skin that resembled cracked pavement.

"I was hoping that my son would finish you. I am not surprised however, to be disappointed by him again. I should let you kill him." Darkseid said calmly.

The surviving Leaguers took their places by Superman's side as he stared down the Lord of Apokolips.

"Nothing clever to say, Kryptonian?"

A scorching beam erupted from Superman's eyes, pouring over Darkseid like a storm of fire. Vell took this chance to form an energy axe and speared forward. Rahn took her side, fist aimed squarely for Darkseid's face.

Clark's heat vision relented, opening for Vell and Rahn's dual attack. However, Darkseid easily whipped a hand out and caught Vell's ring hand before her weapon struck. Rahn's punch managed to land crisply though, causing Darkseid head to reel backwards from the force. He applied more pressure to Vell's hand, the sound of breaking bones echoing through the battlefield.

Barry muttered "Vell..."

Just before he took off with the aid of the Speed Force, Darkseid's eye motioned over to him.

Clark's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "BARRY, RUN!!" He screamed.

To everyone else, it was as if a bright light flashed for a fraction of a second and disappeared...but only Clark could comprehend what actually happened. Darkseid's Omega Beams locked onto Barry, and he ran. He ran everywhere. Every square metre of Earth. It was an eternity for him. Running from something he couldn't outrun. Barry Allen was dead. All Clark could see was a layer of red engulfing the entire planet...and the beam piercing Barry's body.

Superman threw himself at Darkseid with unbridled and uncontrolled fury. Instead of propelling the pair of them into orbit, Darkseid's feet remained planted on solid ground as he bared his teeth in exertion. He kicked Superman back and fired a burst of Omega energy at the kryptonian.

The energy sizzled and popped around Clark, who collapsed from the pain. Out of the fight for now, Superman was replaced by Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who brought their skills into the fight as Darkseid continued squeezing Vell's ring hand.

Darkseid wove in and out of trident and blade strikes, occaisionally slapping them away with his free arm. With one more effort, Darkseid crushed what was left of Vell's hand, causing a small explosion as her ring shattered and detonated. Her body was flung backwards, arm rendered to ash.

Arthur's trident pierced Darkseid's leg, dropping the massive brute to one knee. Rahn came spinning back with another punch, but Darkseid had other plans. He headbutted her hand as it came into contact with him.

In slow motion, her arm folded, bent, and snapped like a twig with a thunderous crack. Swinging a fist out to smack Arthur away, Darkseid caught Rahn with his other hand and pummelled her face into the ground with ferocious speed.

Diana roared into the fray, sword coming down from the sky straight for Darkseid's head. With a single motion, he brought Rahn's body up to block the strike. Diana's blade pierced Rahn's body with ease. Diana froze, horrified.

Taking advantage of this lapse, Darkseid disposed of the corpse, pulled Arthur's trident out of his leg and pegged it at the charging Atlantean. The three-pronged spear embedded itself into Arthur's body, and he fell to the ground.

With only Diana standing and Clark still reeling from the Omega Beam attack, Darkseid clutched the Amazon by the neck. Darkseid peered into her eyes with pity.

Superman finally pushed to his feet from the incredible attack...only to see another flash of Omega effect energy. The beam coursed into Diana's body, burning and disintegrating her completely.

"NO!!!!!!!!" Superman roared. Like a spear, he shot into Darkseid without any holds barred.

Darkseid took advantage of the raw, uncontrolled tackle and opened a boom tube behind himself. The conqueror stepped into it and smirked, before it flashed away in an instant.

Clark landed, panting and eyes watering once more. His friends' corpses were strewn about him like ragdolls. In the end, he couldn't save them. He was right there...but helpless. Darkseid had become more powerful than ever before, due to the secrets of the Anti-Life Equation. It also became apparent to Clark that Kalibak had fled...

Darkseid had planned the entire invasion and pinned it on his son, as to remove himself from blame. Clark surmised that it was likely that Kalibak was ignorant to the fact that his father had orchestrated the entire thing.

The Justice League was no more. Earth may have won against the invasion force...but now, if he couldn't stop Darkseid, it was all over. If Clark fell, so did Earth. His body shook with rage, and his hands formed fists that shook with equal amounts of anger. It took everything he had not to strike the ground he knelt on, and perhaps fracture the planet from end to end. There wasn't much left for him to lose now...

"Clark...?" A hushed tone called to him.

He was so preoccupied with the death around him that he didn't even realise that Silvia had crept up behind him.

Clark stood, looking to his wife with an emotion she had never seen before. He looked lost, completely and utterly lost. It wasn't long before Silvia saw why; the broken bodies of the other Leaguers. "No..." She whispered.

Silvia cautiously approached Clark, who did nothing but stare at her with pained eyes. The pair embraced in silence.

"I-I need to find them." Clark said to her.

Silvia nodded. "There's still a world out there for us to protect. Not much of one...but it's still there. And to keep it safe, we need to find them."

Silence followed, and they didn't move an inch.

The familiar sound of an opening boom tube portal broke the dead quiet, and Clark instantly turned to face the newcomer. It was a massive device, about the size of an oil tanker truck...accompanied by Desaad and Darkseid himself. Desaad's scrawny hooded form was hunched over a control panel by the device, and Darkseid stood ever confident with his eyes locked upon Superman.

"You made a mistake in coming back." Clark snarled from behind clenched teeth. The Man of Steel took several steps towards Darkseid, but stopped in his tracks when he scanned the device that they brought to Earth. It was a bomb, packed with enough explosive matter and gas that it could instantaneously ignite the Earth's atmosphere, immediately rendering it unable of hosting human life.

Clark's breathing grinded to a halt.

Darkseid taunted him. "A wise decision, Kal-El."

"Clark...? What's going on...?" Silvia muttered, not showing any fear in the face of Darkseid.

Suddenly, without warning, the device began to flare. Alarms sounded and warning lights flashed. Desaad's face dropped in horror. "S-Sire, there's been a malfunction!!"

"It is no malfunction, Desaad. I want to bear witness as the kryptonian loses all that he holds dear."

The words were a gutting blow to Clark. Time slowed as he turned faster than he ever had before. His eyes spun to Silvia, who was frozen in place as he moved faster than the human brain could process. As he reached for her, his mind raced. There was nowhere left to go that was safe from that kind of blast. She didn't have a pressure suit...so he couldn't take her into space. Not even Atlantis would be spared; the oceans would boil and cook everything inside it.

The fire spread faster than anything Clark had ever seen. It must have been tainted with the Anti-Life Equation; given a life-seeking attribute that made it instantly seek out any living organisms. Clark opened his mouth to scream as the red blast met with Silvia, but the sound became stuck in his throat as he saw her body consumed.

Time ceased being warped, and Clark heard her scream in pain. He reached her, seeing a world covered in flames. He held her, howling in terror, and watching helpless as Silvia's flesh melted from her bones.

Then came the sounds from billions of others around the world as every human left on Earth was cooked in a wave of hellfire. Sounds that only Clark could hear. Every single person on Earth screamed to him. Men, women, children, animals... They shrieked and flailed for an eternity.

Earth's atmosphere had been fizzled away by the bomb, and soon the flames eased away and left a pitch-black sky, much like the night. Without any atmosphere to give the sky any colour, it was midnight with the sun blazing high in orbit. Clark was as still as the ruins around him, still clutching the smoking remains of his wife.

Desaad had been incinerated but Darkseid stood there still, grinning.

Superman's very core shuddered with boiling wrath. Every muscle in his body tensed and spasmed, as his irises flooded with red light. A wordless scream of anger and sorrow erupted from Clark's dry throat, causing an invisible explosion of pure force that reverberated out in every direction like another detonation.

Darkseid barely managed to stay rooted as any pieces of debris left of Metropolis were grinded into dust and spread into the wind. The sound would have deafened and killed any human being before pulverising every bone in their body.

It fell silent, and Silvia's body had been rendered to ash and scattered in the air. With a flash of white, Clark's tear-soaked eyes peered around and found the sight of another planet.

He'd been teleported someplace... Someplace where the sky was thick and the ground was hot. That statement, however true for a solar-powered kryptonian, was something of an understatement for humans. Surface pressure was that of Earth's multiplied by ninety, and the temperature was almost five hundred degrees Celsius. Normally, Clark wouldn't even feel this change in environment...but the taxing events that preceded his arrival here meant that he did feel it.

Earth was only the latest battle in a long chain that saw Clark and other space-faring Leaguers through the stars on a wild goose chase. They received word that Darkseid had invaded dozens of planets, but all they found were millions of Parademons. If Clark was in his right mind, he would have realised then and there that the entire thing was a ploy to tire him and his kryptonian kin. They were always Darkseid's biggest threat. The campaign against Kalibak drove Superman to a point where he began to burn through energy faster than his body could absorb it from yellow sunlight. He was suffering from fatigue.

The Lord of Apokolips stood there before Clark, in the boiling Venusian heat. A single bead of sweat festered on Clark's brow.

"It is a common misconception that kryptonians are invincible." The New God paced back and forth, with Clark appearing much too enraged to be paying attention. "The key is to tire them. Then they can be broken, all the same--"

Superman hurled himself at Darkseid with physics-defying swiftness. The punch connected on the New God's jaw, and the force cracked the very ground beneath the two. Darkseid was propelled hundreds of miles through Venus' atmosphere. Clark braced, then pushed off of the ground with his legs rather than simply hover upwards; something that he rarely did.

The pressure cracked Venus' outer crust, and sent Clark rocketing through the sky at a ridiculous speed. Within a tenth of a second, he caught up with Darkseid's trajectory and thrusted harder. This push sent Superman into Darkseid's body and cracked the carbon dioxide 'air' with a thundering boom.

In the blink of an eye, the pair were sent into space, where Clark's rage-induced tackle carried them away from Venus and back towards Earth. The short amount of time spent on Venus still left a mark on Clark; he was feeling more and more exerted, although it wasn't something that he even thought about. The only thing in his mind was how he was the last son of two worlds now. He had lost what he fought for.

The comet of two battling titans streaked through the stars and came barrelling towards Earth's singular moon. From that perspective, Earth's once vibrant blue colour was gone, replaced by a barren red waste that mirrored that of Mars' surface.

Darkseid was thrown into the Moon with an unheard of force that instantly sent cracks winding through the centre of the celestial body.

Superman stood above Darkseid, in the bed of a mile-deep crater. He raised a hand to bludgeon Darkseid once more, but his momentary lapse in exhaustion was all that his enemy needed.

Darkseid flashed up and seized Superman by the face. He twirled, swung and slammed Clark into the very crater that he had made with Darkseid moments ago. The ground rumbled, as even more fractures appeared. Darkseid drew back his right fist, as Superman laid dazed in the rubble. Without a second thought, the Lord of Apokolips lashed out with a single planet-killing blow that was filtered through Clark's body.

There was no sound, since there was no atmosphere for the sound to travel through, but the sight was like nothing ever witnessed before. The strike gutted the Moon, sending its innards flying out the other side of the gigantic hole that was blown through it. Then, the rest of the barren rock spun itself apart, sending fragments hurtling away from where its centre was.

Clark's body was sent back down towards the planet, and Darkseid was closely following.

The Man of Steel's unhindered descent resulted in a devastating impact somewhere in the North Asian continent. Dirt and stone was thrown skyward in a mushroom cloud.

When Darkseid landed firmly by Clark's body, some fragments of the moon were in the process of crashing into the now lifeless planet. The atmosphere was now absent of oxygen, since it was all burnt up by Darkseid's doomsday machine.

"You have lost. Your compassion was your downfall. I gave your wench time to find you, only so you could watch helplessly as she boiled away to nothing."

Clark, blood dripping from his mouth, pushed himself up from the seared dirt. Darkseid shook his head in disgust as Clark trembled in pain. "Pathetic." He spat.

Darkseid, although not as battered as Superman, was not a model of good health. His face had been horribly bruised, and his chest had been dented irregularly, as if Clark had collapsed several of his ribs.

Finally, Superman had gotten to his feet, and faced Darkseid. The bright blue of his costume was worn grey, as with the red and yellow. The cape on his back was shorn down to his shoulders and as grey as the Moon.

"Surrender. Or die." Darkseid demanded.

Clark raised his hands in a groggy stance and murmured "Never." as he leant backwards, then leapt forward with an unfiltered haymaker. His fist moved at ninety-nine-point nine percent the speed of light, conveying an energy that was two thousand, eight hundred times more powerful than the nuclear warhead that decimated Hiroshima. The immediate area was washed with so much physical energy that the temperature skyrocketed; it became five million times hotter than the surface of the sun.

The incredible punch travelled so fast that it created nuclear fusion, culminating in an explosion that Earth had never seen before. A fiery blast blossomed up and out, as a shockwave blew past uprooting trees, shredding structures to shrapnel and rocking the planet to its core. The reaction created another crater six miles in diameter and seven hundred and twenty-five feet deep.

The last blow of the battle. It came and went within the perception of a human eye. It took minutes for the dust to settle, and Clark was left in a near-death state, on his knees. A mile away from him was the remains of Darkseid, scorched black and reduced to a melted mess by the strike. Clark himself was not in great shape either.

Given his already weakened state, the punch's reaction damaged him too. Half of his body was covered in burns, and the hair was burned from his head. He remained unmoving. Alive, but unmoving.

Before long, Kalibak arrived via boom tube, his injuries bandaged. A smile appeared on his face as he realised what had happened. Darkseid had lost. The heir of Darkseid's throne slowly approached Clark, brandishing a freshly crafted kryptonite spear.

"My thanks, kryptonian. It has all fallen into my lap."

Kalibak raised the spear, not warranting any reaction from Superman. He was alive, but in spirit he was dead. Kalibak buried the spear into Superman's heart, killing him instantly.