After Daniel returned to Wayne Manor, Bruce immediately noticed the empty space in his hands.
"The last Mother Box..." Bruce asked quietly. "We lost it?"
Daniel nodded.
"We did."
Victor let out a slow breath before speaking.
"It was actually a good thing Daniel reacted when he did. If he hadn't thrown the Mother Box into the air at the last second, the energy discharge would've destroyed the entire mansion. Everyone inside would've been killed. I couldn't shut it down. The moment I almost gained control, it woke up."
Bruce remained silent for a moment, thinking through everything that had happened.
"So now the enemy has all three Mother Boxes."
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
For the first time in a long while, he genuinely felt the situation slipping beyond his control. Everything until now had gone more or less according to plan, but Steppenwolf obtaining the final Mother Box had changed everything.
Victor looked up.
"Not necessarily."
Everyone turned toward him.
"While I was connected to the Mother Box, I managed to access part of its data before it rejected me. The Unity isn't instantaneous."
"The three Mother Boxes need time to synchronize before they can begin rewriting the planet. If we find them before that synchronization is complete, we can still stop the Unity."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"You can locate them?"
Victor nodded.
"I think so. I need to build equipment that can lock onto the communication signals they're exchanging."
Bruce answered immediately.
"Whatever you need, you'll find it in the Batcave."
Victor nodded before following Bruce deeper into the cave to begin working.
Only Diana remained.
She quietly walked over to Daniel and reached for his left hand.
The moment she turned it over, her expression changed.
The Mark of Nexus, which normally shimmered with black and gold patterns, now contained faint crimson cracks spreading through its surface, pulsing like damaged veins.
Diana looked up at him.
"Did you do something?"
Daniel let out a tired sigh.
"Yeah."
"I tried forcing time backward twice in succession."
He looked down at the damaged mark.
"It didn't work out."
Diana's expression grew serious after hearing what Daniel had done. Out of everyone present, she understood better than most what his power represented. Rewinding time wasn't simply another ability. It was something that interfered with one of the fundamental laws of existence.
"So it didn't work?" Diana asked. "Even after you tried to alter time?"
Daniel shook his head.
"The Mother Boxes reacted too quickly. They almost immediately established a connection, summoned Steppenwolf, and disappeared before I could reverse it."
Before he could continue, Daniel suddenly coughed violently.
A mouthful of blood splattered onto the floor.
At the same time, thin crimson lines spread from the Mark of Nexus, crawling up his left arm, across his neck, and toward his face like glowing cracks beneath his skin.
Daniel's breathing became uneven.
His vision blurred.
The constant ringing in his ears drowned out everything around him.
His legs gave way.
He dropped to one knee.
Diana immediately knelt beside him, supporting him before he could fall completely.
"Daniel!"
She grabbed his shoulders.
"What happened? Can you hear me?"
Daniel tried to answer.
The words wouldn't come.
The ringing only grew louder, and the world before his eyes became darker with every passing second.
"I think..."
"Something's wrong with me..."
Before Diana could react, Daniel's body went limp, and he collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
The System abruptly activated.
Bright blue warning windows filled his vision.
[WARNING]
[Host has been infected with an Energy-Type Corruption Virus.]
[Isolation Protocol Initiated.]
[Isolation Successful.]
[Corrupted energy has been quarantined.]
[40% of the host's body has been contaminated.]
[Regeneration of infected regions is impossible.]
[Root cause must be eliminated before recovery can begin.]
[WARNING]
[Corruption continues to consume host vitality.]
[Host survival probability will continue to decrease if the root cause is not removed.]
[System recommends immediate treatment.]
The final warning flashed repeatedly before his fading consciousness.
***
At the abandoned nuclear disaster site in Pozharnov, Russia, Steppenwolf stood before the three Mother Boxes as Parademons surrounded the entire area, guarding it from every direction.
The Mother Boxes began resonating with one another.
A deep metallic hum echoed across the wasteland.
Crimson energy spread over the ground like veins.
The surrounding landscape immediately began to change.
The ruined buildings twisted into black metallic structures.
Massive alien pillars rose from beneath the earth.
The scorched terrain slowly transformed into the harsh landscape of Apokolips as a new fortress grew around the three Mother Boxes.
Steppenwolf watched silently.
The three Mother Boxes slowly moved toward one another as the Unity progressed.
At that moment, a boom tube opened above the stronghold.
A figure stepped out of the portal.
Steppenwolf smiled.
"Now..."
"Not even the Kryptonian can save Earth."
*****
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