The Empty Hand left.
Doctor Manhattan had obtained the portion of his power essence that he had peeled away from the Empty Hand, and he could now begin studying it.
He had Batman Dragon to thank for this. Without his help, even if Doctor Manhattan had captured the Empty Hand, analyzing his power under his resistance would have taken an extremely long time. But now, Batman Dragon had caused the Empty Hand to voluntarily abandon a portion of his power in the Watchmen Universe, saving Doctor Manhattan an incalculable amount of trouble.
The Empty Hand must have thought that abandoning this power would not give Doctor Manhattan much more insight into his abilities, but he was wrong. Just as Doctor Manhattan did not understand the Empty Hand or the story of his abilities, the Empty Hand did not understand Doctor Manhattan either.
During his long observation of the DC Multiverse, Doctor Manhattan had grown faster than anyone else—so fast that even Perpetua had not anticipated it. He had almost figured out, through a combination of guesses and deductions, how Perpetua had created the world. Given enough time, there was almost no power Doctor Manhattan could not understand. It only depended on whether he decided to master it.
Among gods on the level of Perpetua and the Empty Hand, Doctor Manhattan's learning ability would surely astonish everyone.
Doctor Manhattan tried to act on this mass of story power wrapped around the Empty Hand's flesh. He attempted to infiltrate it with his quantum-linking power, but, as expected, he felt only the enormous backlash from the mass of power.
Then came the sound of flesh cracking, fur billowing and growing longer. Yes, it was the severed hand of a righteous hero across the ages, the wounded arm of a lone heroic champion—the hero's