Countdown. Part 17

" 'Those whom the G.o.ds would destroy . . .'" Hippolyta mused, quoting Euripides. Mary's explanation seemed to satisfy the older woman; the queen's voice and expression softened. "But it seems you've purged that evil from your body and spirit. I sense within you nothing worse than regret."

Mary was grateful for Hippolyta's leniency, even if she wasn't entirely sure she deserved it. I've got a lot to atone for, she thought. But that didn't explain why they were meeting in this spooky cave. "Then why bring me down here like a prisoner?"

"Can't be too careful on this rock nowadays," the guard from Gotham explained. Orange bangs peeked out from beneath the brow of her Corinthian helmet. "There's a fake Athena out there, training phony Amazons."

"Yeah," her squeaky-voiced comrade confirmed. "It's like cheerleading camp, only run by Bin Laden."

Mary blinked in surprise. A fake Athena? Bogus Amazons? It was a lot to take in all at once. Now what have I got myself mixed up in, she fretted, and without any powers to boot?

"We're going to bring them down," the first guard declared, "but we need all the help we can get." Her streetwise blue eyes looked into Mary's. "You in?"

13 AND COUNTING.

Tears stream down Jean Loring's face. She writhes helplessly within the constricting bonds of the heavy canvas straitjacket. Her short black hair is matted and in disarray. Beefy guards haul her toward a waiting cell in Arkham Asylum as she peers frantically back over her shoulder at the man she loves.

"Ray! Don't let them take me!" Crazed blue eyes plead for mercy. Saliva sprays from her lips. "Don't do this to me! RAY!"

Ray Palmer looks on helplessly as the guards drag his ex-wife away. In happier days, he had often rescued her from all manner of perils, but this time she was beyond saving. Jean had condemned them both to this terrible moment when, unhinged by madness, she had murdered one of their best friends as part of an insane scheme to revive their marriage. Now he can do nothing but watch her join the other dangerous lunatics in Arkham, possibly for the rest of her natural life.

He has never felt so small.

Her desperate shrieks echo in his ears. "Help me! Ray! RAY!"

"Ray?"

Jean gently nudged his shoulder as she woke him from his nightmare. He sat up abruptly in their bed, his body drenched in sweat. Disoriented, it took him a second to remember where he was....

IVY TOWN. EARTH-51.

"Another bad dream?" Jean asked. Standing beside the bed, she gazed down at him in concern. A purple turtleneck sweater flattered her figure. Her stylishly coifed black hair curled over her shoulders. Silver crescent earrings sparkled in the dim lighting. "You poor thing. Perhaps you should see someone about these recurring nightmares. Maybe that nice Dr. Quinzel at the clinic?"

"After the holidays," he promised, although he privately doubted that therapy was the answer. How could he explain to a psychiatrist-or to Jean-that these "nightmares" were actually painful memories from another life . . . on another Earth? I just have to put the past behind me, he thought. Somehow.

Jean glanced at the atomic clock on the dresser, next to their wedding photo. "Anyway, nap time's over. You need to get up and get dressed. Our friends will be here soon."

Right, Ray remembered. The Christmas party. Rising from the bed, he paused to peer out the window at the peaceful suburban neighborhood outside. Snow carpeted their neighbors' roofs and front yards, although the sidewalks and driveways had already been shoveled clean. Christmas lights decorated every house in the cul-de-sac. Genuine snowmen shared the lawns with plastic reindeer, elves, and Wise Men. A life-sized replica of Superman, wearing a Santa hat, posed in the large inflatable snow globe occupying the Morrows' front yard. The kids across the street played fetch with their rambunctious Irish setter, the one that kept hara.s.sing the cat next door. Smoke rose from brick chimneys. A glorious winter sunset confirmed it was almost evening.

Gazing out at the tranquil holiday scene, he could almost forget that ghastly trip to Arkham. He turned toward Jean, seeing only the beautiful woman he had fallen in love with in the first place, not the mentally disturbed murderer he had left behind two years ago. His throat tightened with emotion. He discreetly wiped a tear from his eye. I've been given a second chance here, he reminded himself. Another shot at happiness for both of us. He shook his head, trying to clear any lingering vestiges of the nightmare from his mind. I can't let it go to waste.

Jean stood in the doorway, watching him. "I'll be down in a few minutes," he a.s.sured her. "Just give me a chance to straighten up."

"All right. But don't be long." She shot him a teasing smile before exiting the bedroom. "You know how punctual Barry and Iris are these days."

A hot shower and a change of clothes helped him put his memories of Earth-One behind him, at least for the time being, so that he felt more at home by the time their guests arrived. Ralph and Sue Dibny settled onto the couch beside Iris Allen, while Iris's husband, Barry, helped himself to a second plate of homemade Christmas cookies. Bright orange flames danced in the fireplace, making the living room warm and cozy. Brightly colored packages were piled high beneath the Christmas tree. Instead of the usual star, the handblown gla.s.s ornament atop the tree, a gift from his colleagues at the university, took the form of an atomic symbol. Matching "His" and "Hers" stockings hung from the mantel. Strings of popcorn hung upon the branches of the tree. Bing Crosby crooned softly from the stereo.

"Hey, Barry!" Ralph's arm stretched across the room to tap the Fastest Man Alive on the shoulder. His wavy red hair matched his garish holiday sweater. "Have you and Iris thought about joining the four of us for New Year's?"

Barry Allen grinned at his friend and former teammate. His blond crewcut was hardly hip, but seemed to suit him. "We'd be delighted, but if I have to sit through another 'Elongated Man Mystery' game, I'll be out the door faster than a photon."

"Heh!" Ralph's rubbery nose wiggled. "Understood."

Ray chuckled, enjoying the casual chatter and camaraderie, as he poured himself a mug of eggnog. He tried not to think about the fact that, back on that other Earth, Barry and Sue were both dead, Barry having perished during the original Crisis several years ago, while Sue had been savagely murdered by none other than Jean herself....

But not this Jean, he reminded himself. Not here.

"Oh! Check this out," Jean said, nodding at the TV set in the corner. Plucking the remote from the coffee table, she clicked off the Mute command. "It's Diana."

The television, which had been tuned to coverage of tonight's Christmas celebration in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., flashed up a picture of Wonder Woman in full Amazon regalia. "Even Queen Diana of Paradise Island," Lois Lane-Kent reported, "is here to wish us all a very happy holiday."

"Would you look at Diana?" Sue sighed. She put down a piece of fudge, apparently having second thoughts about the fattening treat, even though the pet.i.te brunette hardly looked like she needed to diet. "I swear that woman never ages."

The broadcast cut to a shot of Superman descending from the sky above D.C., bearing a truckload of Christmas presents with bright red ribbons. His legendary S-s.h.i.+eld was inscribed on every oversized crate.

"There's Clark," Barry said. "Still delivering food and toys to the underprivileged like a red and blue St. Nick. Good for him."

Ray smiled at the TV. "I love it when he dons the old duds. Even if it's only just once a year."

On this world, the Justice League of America had disbanded after successfully ridding the world of every major meta-human menace. There were no more super heroes anymore, nor any need for them.

"You ever miss the old days, guys?" Ralph asked the other men. "I still keep my stretchy uniform hanging in the closet. Just for old times' sake."

"Just hanging?" his wife teased him good-naturedly. "Fess up, honey. I know you put it on sometimes when you think n.o.body is looking."

He smooched her on the cheek. "Only because I know how it turns you on."

"Oh, Ralph!" Sue elbowed him playfully, her attractive face turning an embarra.s.sed shade of red. "Behave!"

Barry sat down beside Iris. "Seriously, I don't mind not being the Flash anymore. The League did what it set out to do. We suited up to make the world a better place, spent five exciting years taking down all the bad guys, and . . . presto! Mission accomplished."

"Sounds good to me," Iris agreed. She wore her light brown hair in a fas.h.i.+onable bob. Her green c.o.c.ktail dress was the color of mistletoe. "At least you're never late for dinner or anniversaries anymore." She shook her head at the memory. "Back when you were running around the world, fighting Captain Cold or whoever, you were always late for everything!"

Everyone laughed at the irony of the Flash, of all people, never being on time. Ray took another sip of eggnog.

"You're right, Barry," he said thoughtfully. "It's a good thing the League called it quits when we did, at the top of our game." He savored the happy ending they had all found on this best of all possible worlds. "Who knows? We could have ended up dead or . . ."

Insane, he thought, averting his eyes from Jean.

"Oh, Ray." She came up behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist. "I hate to impose, but the fire seems to be dying down."

He glanced at the hearth, where the crackling logs did appear to be on their last legs. "Say no more, darling." He reluctantly disengaged himself from her embrace. "I'm on it."

Throwing on a jacket, he ventured out into the backyard in search of more firewood. The crisp December weather felt invigorating after the toasty living room. His breath frosted before his lips. The smoky aroma of dozens of active chimneys added a piquant touch to the air. He took a moment to bask in the peace and quiet.

Now, this is living. A relaxing evening at home with lifelong friends, a loving wife, and a warm fire. He retrieved an armload of logs from a stack by the back porch. A few more nights like this and those nightmares don't stand a- Then he glimpsed a trio of figures lurking in the shadows just beyond the white picket fence enclosing the backyard. Moonlight reflected off the snow, offering him a murky view of the strangers. One of them was obviously not human....

Despair gripped his heart. The firewood tumbled from his arms. "Oh no."

He felt numb all over. Unable to face the reckoning upon him, he staggered back indoors and locked the door behind him. His jacket was too warm for inside, but he barely noticed the heat. He wandered back to the living room in a daze. This can't be happening, he thought. It isn't fair . . . .

"Er, Ray," Barry commented from the couch. "You kinda forgot the firewood."

Jean picked up on his distress immediately. "Ray? What is it?" A worried expression came over her face. "You look like it was fifty below out there."

Oh G.o.d, how was he ever going to explain this to her? "I . . . Jean, I'm so sorry. . . ."

"Sorry?" She rushed to his side. Her warm hand grasped his arm. "I don't understand. You're shaking like a leaf. . . ."

He stared into her confused, compa.s.sionate eyes. There was no trace of homicidal mania in those captivating blue orbs, only love and concern. His heart broke all over again. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I deluded myself into thinking that I could avoid this, that the past would never catch up with us."

"What past?" She was trembling too now, as though his fear and dismay were contagious. A few feet away, their guests rose anxiously to their feet. Jean's grip tightened on his arm. "Ray, you're scaring me!"

A column of sparking energy manifested in the foyer leading to the living room. Startled gasps greeted the sudden arrival of the ominous trio Ray had just glimpsed outside. Apparently they had wanted to scout out the scene before making their presence known. Ray recognized Jason Todd and Donna Troy from Earth-One, although he could have sworn they were supposed to be dead. Some sort of time-travel paradox, he wondered, or did their apparent "deaths" prove to be only temporary? Lord knew they wouldn't be the first costumed heroes or villains to come back from what had seemed to be a violent demise. Everyone thought I was dead once....

There was no mistaking their hulking alien companion either. Ray knew a Monitor when he saw one.

"Ray Palmer!" Donna gave him a friendly smile. She held out her hand as she stepped into the living room. Her sparkling black leotard and silver wristbands looked out of place on this peaceful world, where everyone else had hung up their capes years ago. "You're a hard man to find, you know that?"

"Donna Troy?" Sue Dibny blinked in confusion. Ray couldn't blame her; as far as his friends were concerned, the former Wonder Girl had left Earth to join the Green Lantern Corps back in 2001. She was probably the last person they expected to drop by uninvited.

Barry zipped over to Ray's side. The breeze whipped up by his speed rustled the branches on the Christmas tree. Ornaments tinkled like wind chimes. "What's going on, buddy?"

Ray buried his face in his hands. It's over, he realized. I can't pretend anymore. The truth was coming out, whether he liked it or not. "I-I'm not this world's Ray Palmer."

"What?" Jean looked utterly baffled. "Sweetie, what are you saying? That doesn't make any sense."

If only that were true! "My nightmares," he confessed. "They're all real." He groped for some way to soften the blow, but it all came spilling out of him. "Where I come from, you're . . . different. You don't act like you."

"But I'm me," she protested. "I always act like me...."

Ray sank into his favorite easy chair. He stared dolefully at the floor, unable to meet her eyes. "No, Jean. You're capable of murder." He choked back a sob. "On my world, you murdered Sue Dibny."

"Murder Sue?" Ralph exclaimed. He wrapped a protective arm around his wife. "Jean would never-"

"But my Jean did!" His estranged ex-wife had embarked on a premeditated campaign of terror against the loved ones of the Justice League, even faking an attack on herself, in order to lure Ray back to her side. "She did, and I . . . I was devastated. I did the only thing I could think to do. I ran away, disappearing into subatomic s.p.a.ce. I thought that maybe if I became small enough, I could escape the pain."

Outside Arkham Asylum, on that horrible day, he had activated the size and ma.s.s controls built into his belt buckle, which employed a fragment of a white dwarf star to render him infinitesimal in size. A blue cowl and simple red and blue uniform transformed the grieving physicist into the Atom....

"For a while, I was without direction, hopeless, but then I met a young mystic who filled me in on the true nature of the Multiverse."

"K'Dessa," Donna guessed correctly.

Ray nodded. "She spoke of fifty-two completely different Earths, each of them unique, yet still similar in some ways to my own. So I made it my business to learn how to slip between the universes on a quantum level and started searching for a place that might be able to bring me some peace of mind. But most of what I found was even worse than the world I came from. . . ."

He shuddered at the memory of some of the bizarre Earths he had encountered in his travels. A world of Gothic horrors where Batman was a vampire who preyed upon the blood of the wicked. A world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, thanks to a patriotic Russian version of Superman. Worlds of Crime Societies and Extremists, where unstoppable super-villains robbed and murdered at will. A postapocalyptic Earth, devastated by a nuclear war. A world where the n.a.z.is won World War II . . .

"I'd almost given up," he admitted, "when I found this world. So much like mine, yet blissfully untainted by many of the tragedies that had darkened my own Earth. I couldn't resist seeking myself out, hoping that, perhaps, the sight of another Ray Palmer, living out a more idyllic existence, would somehow bring me comfort. But things didn't turn out the way I planned...."

His memory flashed back to that fateful day two years ago.

Only two inches high, the Atom spies on his twin as the other Ray tinkers with complicated scientific apparatus in the bas.e.m.e.nt of his comfortable home in Ivy Town. As nearly as he can tell, this world's Ray had also discovered the existence of the Multiverse and is even now preparing to test a portal designed to access alternate realities. Hiding upon a cluttered tool shelf, the Atom holds his breath as Ray-51 activates the device.

But the eager scientist had obviously miscalculated. The portal explodes in a burst of cosmic energy that instantly incinerates its inventor. Aghast, the Atom watches himself die!

The notion of taking the other Ray's place does not occur to the stunned hero immediately, but, once he overcomes his initial shock at his counterpart's abrupt demise, the idea steadily takes over his mind. After all, the Justice League is busy waging its final battles against the forces of evil. Perhaps this Earth still needs an Atom?

What really convinces him, however, is the note he finds scribbled on the other Ray's calendar: BLIND DATE WITH JEAN L. DINNER. 7:30.

"He wasn't really your Ray yet," he explained to Jean, who stared at him in bewilderment. He lifted his gaze from the floor. "I wasn't deceiving you, not really. It was like I had a second chance to make things perfect between us. We could be happy again, for good this time...."

His voice trailed off as she turned away from him, unable to cope. Confused sobs racked her slender body. Does she believe me, he agonized, or does she think I've lost my mind? He reached out for her tentatively. "Jean? I'm still the man you fell in love with...."

"What the h.e.l.l?" Ralph's nose wiggled indignantly. "I've had enough of this bull!" Fists clenched, he glared at Donna and her companions. "I don't know what sort of game you're playing here, but . . . !"

"I'm so sorry," Donna replied, a guilty expression on her face. She appeared genuinely troubled by the turmoil she had caused. "But I'm afraid it's all true."

Barry scratched his head. "Parallel Earths, separated by some sort of vibrational barriers?" The scientist in him sounded intrigued by the theory. "I suppose it's possible...."

"It is more than possible, Barry Allen," the Monitor stated firmly. Jean and the guests shrank away instinctively from the imposing armored figure. "Everything spoken of tonight is reality. And Ray Palmer is the very reason we are here."

"I don't understand," Ray said. "How did you find me?"

"One of my brethren inadvertently revealed your location," the Monitor explained, "when he tried to convince me that you were 'living a life of no consequence.' Nix Uotan could not have known that for a fact unless you were dwelling in the very universe he was charged to monitor." A scowl rendered the Monitor's saturnine countenance even more forbidding. "Clearly, he had a personal stake in obstructing our quest."

Ray had no idea who "Nix Uotan" was, but that hardly mattered now. "I don't understand. Why did you have to track me down anyway?" Moist eyes implored the intruders. His voice cracked. "Why couldn't you people just leave me alone?"

"The Multiverse has need of you, Ray Palmer." The Monitor strode across the living room toward the seated hero. He pointed a gloved finger at Ray. "You are destined to play a crucial role in events to come."

Ray refused to accept this. "But that's ridiculous! Why me?"

Jason Todd shrugged. "Don't ask me, dude. I'm just along for the ride."

His crimson mask failed to conceal his c.o.c.ky att.i.tude, which Ray remembered from Jason's days as Robin. "Jason?" Barry asked, belatedly recognizing the masked youth. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, and no wonder; on this world, it was the Joker's brutal murder of Jason Todd that had ultimately inspired the Justice League to put away all the super-villains once and for all. A memorial to the martyred sidekick occupied a prime location in Gotham City's ritzy Wayne Plaza. People still laid flowers in front of the statue on the anniversary of Robin's death. "This is incredible!"

"I'm sorry," Donna apologized again. "But the Monitor knows what he's talking about. We've come a long way to find you, Ray."

But I didn't want to be found! Ray had always liked Donna Troy, but right now she and her unwanted cohorts seemed like harbingers of doom, p.r.o.nouncing a death sentence on everything he had managed to build for himself on this wonderful new world. "I wish you hadn't."

"Your personal desires are irrelevant," the Monitor declared. "You must come with us at once-or risk universal catastrophe!"

"No!" Ray lurched from his chair. "There are other heroes out there, fifty-two worlds' worth! Find someone else for your G.o.dd.a.m.n crusade! I'm not going anywhere!"

Donna tried to intervene. "I know this must come as a shock, Ray, but we wouldn't be here if we didn't think it was important." She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "K'Dessa herself spoke of a prophecy...."

"I don't care!" He swatted her hand away. "I have a new life here, a new chance at happiness. I'm not giving that up!"

His friends came to his defense. Barry twisted a ring upon his finger and a hypercompressed red suit sprang from a hidden compartment in the ring. The lanky forensic scientist donned the uniform in a split second. Metallic yellow lightning bolts accented the skintight red costume. "If you want Ray, you'll have to go through the Flas.h.!.+"

A look of profound annoyance darkened the Monitor's face. Without warning, he fired a blast of energy from his gauntlet. Burning plasma instantly consumed the Flash, reducing him to a charred skeleton before the very eyes of his wife and friends. The blackened bones clattered onto the carpet. "Barry Allen," the Monitor said coldly, "this time you die before the Crisis can take root."