Multiverse: Deathstroke-Chapter 501: Terminator Paradox

Barry had no interest in lingering for tea with Deathstroke. He needed to rush to the Hall of Justice for a meeting with Batman.

So, when Su Ming descended the damp, dark staircase alone, he found Harley and Ivy holding their "celebration."

It was meager. Flood-soaked food left them with one apple, a candle stuck in it.

But the beer was plentiful.

"You’re back. No power, no water," Harley said, propping her chin with a bottle, her pigtails drooping listlessly.

"My craft’s on the roof. Power and water there. You can shower," Su Ming said, pointing up, sitting at their small round table, more like a barstool.

The three huddled around it, staring at the candle in the dark.

"After the party, we’ll go. Let’s cut the cake!" Harley pointed at the apple, hands clasped by her cheek, wriggling with renewed energy.

Su Ming drew his Godslayer sword, slicing the apple into three perfect pieces, leaving the core upright with the candle, unmoved.

Ivy flinched, uneasy so close to Deathstroke.

"Let’s eat, Red!" Harley grabbed her piece, shoving Ivy’s into her hands.

Harley was sharp. She knew safety lay with Deathstroke or Batman.

Given her weaker combat skills and past with Batman, she chose Deathstroke.

Su Ming sensed her ease, but Ivy was tense, like a scared animal.

No matter. His plan was to stake out the Joker or the Laughing Bat. Ivy was just Harley’s bonus—like a sausage or cheese chunk with brand-name rat poison.

The bait’s attitude didn’t matter.

The Justice League was idle, so the Laughing Bat wouldn’t strike head-on now.

Crafting new monstrous Batmen took time.

As another Batman, he’d isolate and eliminate enemies one by one, striking when everyone was stretched thin.

Su Ming would set traps and hide in distant bushes.

He ate his apple, sipped beer, chatted with them, and played poker by candlelight.

Late at night, he retreated to his assigned room—a large closet, likely once a wardrobe, windowless, perfect.

Darkness enveloped him, only cockroaches scuttling in corners.

Earth’s affairs were mostly settled. Now, to the Realm of the Dead, via dreams.

Given The Presence’s odd behavior, Su Ming had a bold theory: The Presence was mutating, requiring a meeting with the remaining Endless for intel.

Dream himself seemed fine, but his realm’s sky ticked down to cosmic destruction—a grave issue.

Meeting cosmic concepts wasn’t pleasant. Only Death and Destiny were cooperative; Destruction, Desire, Nightmare, and Delirium were indifferent.

Personified concepts were just that—mimics, not human, like DC’s coded programs.

Su Ming summoned the Upside-Down Man, a wall-born magical concept, more human-like.

When the white-scaled, slippery figure appeared upside-down, trailed by eldritch magical projections, every concept dry-heaved.

Yes, Su Ming saw it. Even non-eating, organ-less personifications retched.

Wade’s artistic touch was a causal weapon.

Su Ming displayed his ten Lantern rings’ power, then got to business.

Albedo sought Lucifer and Dream on his suggestion, but no word yet. The Presence was showing anomalies.

The Endless, though mighty, paled next to DC’s sole creator.

Consensus: return home, wait for the right moment.

Destiny said The Presence’s form was transforming, like an egg in the divine realm. Only hatching would reveal the outcome.

The Presence’s fate wasn’t Destiny’s domain, leaving him helpless.

If Dream and The Presence were scheming, answers would come last.

Su Ming sensed this tied to the Multiverse’s countdown. The Presence might be reshaping itself for a new Genesis.

That was a headache.

Not a mission failure—just a briefing during execution, introducing the Upside-Down Man to old-guard concepts. Personified ones were easier to deal with.

Post-meeting, the Upside-Down Man slipped away. Su Ming chatted briefly with Death, then left.

DC’s Death was harsher than Marvel’s. Her core rule: if she loved someone, she’d die, replaced by a new personification.

Concepts served the world; programs didn’t need emotions.

Leaving the Endless, Su Ming had one more meeting.

In familiar starry voids, a blue giant sat cross-legged, stars orbiting as always.

Su Ming retracted the X-Metal from his finger, separating it from the Comedian’s badge. His cloak let him float.

"Doctor."

"You found out, faster than I calculated. I analyzed countless future samples, yet our futures remain unseen," the giant said.

"You can’t see yours because you’re already dead," Su Ming floated beside him, an ant next to an elephant. "But the universe’s missing decade is in this badge, right?"

"Correct, but not entirely. Quantum is everywhere. Even in death, quantum remains quantum."

The blue giant’s voice boomed like a lecture hall speech from his human days.

"Does ’Manhattan’ still mean anything to you?"

"No. I say ’I’ for your human language. Formless quantum lacks individuality." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Dr. Manhattan gazed distantly, expressionless, continuing: "Describing the formless with formed cognition—even I can’t clarify further."

Su Ming sighed. If the Comedian’s badge was a quantum realm gateway, the lost decade—and the infinite worlds holding his body’s original owner—were here.

Last time’s blue light? He wasn’t teleported; the badge absorbed him.

He was inside the badge, yet it hung on his chest. Within it, another him, with another badge, ad infinitum.

Thinking about it dropped his sanity.

A Möbius strip or Klein bottle—an infinite loop of decade-long fragments.

Manhattan didn’t hide or deceive; he couldn’t explain clearer to a 3D being like Su Ming.

That was the unnameable.

"What about the universe’s impending end?" Su Ming switched topics. Chasing incomprehensible knowledge risked madness.

"There’s no ’seeing’ it. Your ’now’ is my future and past."

Manhattan wasn’t cryptic—he spoke fact.

Su Ming grasped it vaguely.

In this rolling "decade ball," he could move forward or backward relative to external time. But the ball’s decade was a fixed slice of "time."

Inside, time was infinite for Manhattan.

Externally, endless possibilities made everything uncertain. One view showed one outcome; rewind, and it shifted slightly.

After billions of tries yielding billions of results, seeing or not became irrelevant.

Chaotic, patternless data held no value—especially with Su Ming, a Traveler, breaking cosmic boundaries.

Their last meeting might occur after this one.

"Wait, those gems you gave me last time..."

"Yes. Because you gave me the ten rings ’now,’ I could give them to you in the ’past.’"

Manhattan admitted calmly. The gems, deemed Cosmic Hearts by the Ancient One, held incomprehensible energy—quantized Lantern rings.

"But they’re still here, rings and gems." Su Ming materialized the rings, pulling the remaining gems from behind.

Everything as before.

"Because they exist outside any timeline here. If you don’t give me the rings, the past rewrites."

Su Ming paused, removing each ring, placing them in Manhattan’s hand—even the Invisible Light ring, unwound by blue quantum.

"So, theoretically, if I return to a later point in this world, I could reclaim the rings, use them, return them here, and wait for our ’first’ meeting when they become gems?"

"Correct. External timelines are rivers that can pause or reverse, but only in quantum terms."

"...Keep the rings on the external timeline. I’m heading where they’re useless."

Manhattan held the rings, expressionless, watching Deathstroke vanish.