Sudden Interruption

The city skyline gradually sharpened in the dawn light.

Ian stood on that cloud, looking down at the city he had just cleansed.

Streetlights went out one after another. The sky turned from deep blue to pale blue, then from pale blue to the white of a fish belly.

Early risers began appearing on the streets—elderly people out for morning runs, riders delivering newspapers, breakfast stall owners opening their shops.

They did not know what had happened that night. They did not know those "gods" who had once stood high above them had already vanished from this world.

But their lives would go on.

The same as yesterday, the same as the day before, the same as countless ordinary days.

"Quite a harmonious world, actually."

The little Xenomorph lay on Ian's shoulder, fast asleep. Little Dragon was curled up on his other shoulder too, wings folded, giving off faint little snores. The two little guys had been busy with him all night and were long since exhausted. Ian stroked their heads, then descended from the cloud and landed on a quiet street.

He did not leave this universe.

Originally, he had planned to go. The Jupiter Family had been purged, those criminals had been locked away in the God Kingdom, and everything that needed doing was done. He should have continued on his way, returned to the DC universe, and gone to fix those chaotic timelines.

But when he stood on that wasteland and looked at the traces of golden blood left in those two pits, a thought had suddenly surfaced in his mind: what exactly was this universe?

Where had it come from? Why had it merged into the DC universe? Why were its physical laws so similar to the DC universe's, yet it had no Heaven or Hell?