Near the end of the evening, as the crowd began to thin and the estate settled into something quieter, John made one last pass by Arthur and Kara, glancing down at Aurora, now peacefully asleep in her mother's arms.
"Shame, really," he said, shaking his head with mock solemnity. "Would've been better if she'd inherited the blonde hair instead of his broody ashen white mop. Softens the whole 'daughter of Death' look considerably."
"John!" Zatanna hissed, mortified, already reaching to drag him away by the sleeve.
"What? I'm being constructive."
"You're being ridiculous and rude!"
"Same thing, usually."
Kara only laughed, pulling Arthur close against her side, resting her head briefly against his shoulder as she looked down at their daughter. "I'm fine with either, honestly," she said. "She's half both of us, after all. Wouldn't change a single thing about her."
Adam, overhearing from a few feet away, raised his glass toward them both with an easy, genuine grin. "For what it's worth, I think she got the best of both of you. Way too early to actually tell, obviously, but I stand by it."
"Thank you, Adam."
"Don't thank me yet. Ask me again once she's old enough to start breaking things with heat vision."
"Oh, don't even joke about that," Kara said, though she was laughing again despite herself.
"I'm not joking. I'm preparing..."
Their mother, passing by once more with a fond look, simply smiled at the whole scene without adding a word to it, content, it seemed, to let the noise and warmth of the evening speak for itself.
Arthur wrapped an arm around Kara, watching the warm, chaotic sprawl of family and friends still filling his home, Marshals debating parenting philosophy, old friends trading stories over half-finished plates, Bruce quietly, uncharacteristically at ease in the corner, John still grinning at his own joke despite Zatanna's best efforts to swat it out of him, his mother drifting contentedly through it all without needing to say a single thing.
"I never thought I'd have this," Kara said softly, just for him. "A family, here, on Earth, like this. Not really. Not after everything I lost."
"Count me in as well," Arthur said, drawing her a little closer, his gaze drifting once more to the small, sleeping face nestled between them. "I don't think I ever quite let myself imagine it either."
"Well," Kara said, smiling up at him, "get used to it. I don't plan on letting this go anywhere."
"I wouldn't want you to."
The party carried on well into the evening, warm light spilling from every window of the estate, laughter and argument and quiet conversation folding together into something that felt, for once, entirely unremarkable, a house simply full of people who loved each other, celebrating the smallest, most ordinary miracle in the world.
For once unreservedly, nothing about the night belonged to war, or gods, or thrones. It belonged only to them.
The estate had gone quiet by the time the last of the noise settled into sleep. Guests who hadn't wanted to make the trip home so late had simply been given rooms, the place was massive enough to swallow a dozen more households without anyone noticing the difference, and Kara had insisted, in that gentle, immovable way of hers, that everyone simply stay. So they had. Somewhere upstairs, Diana and Hal had claimed separate guest wings without complaint, and even John and Zatanna had reluctantly agreed to a room rather than a portal home at this hour.
Arthur found himself outside anyway, unable to fully rest, drawn out into the cool night air of the garden. He wasn't alone for long.
Bruce arrived first, still fully dressed despite the hour, followed by Clark. Hal trailed in last, hands in his pockets, glancing around at the quiet, moonlit garden with the faint unease of someone who suspected he was about to have a conversation he wouldn't be able to simply laugh off later.
"I had to confirm this with you," Hal said finally, once the four of them had settled near the low stone wall overlooking the garden's central fountain. "Directly. Not secondhand."
"It's no secret that I was the one who killed Darkseid," Arthur said, unbothered.
"It was hard to believe," Hal admitted. "Even the Guardians didn't want to believe it, at first. What you did.. that's something most beings across the universe wouldn't even let themselves dream about attempting."
"It's still hard to believe Apokolips is actually gone," Clark said quietly, shaking his head. "Though I suppose that's a fitting end for a world built on that much cruelty."
Bruce, characteristically, went straight for the part that mattered most to him. "Did Darkseid say anything, before he died?"
"Threats," Arthur said. "A great many threats. I made a few of my own in return."
"You're still planning to go after the real one," Bruce said. It wasn't a question.
"I have to."
"How much stronger is he?" Clark asked.
"Considerably stronger than the avatar," Arthur said. "Though I was already powerful enough, even against that avatar, that I could have simply thrown the full weight of my Marshals at him and won regardless. It would have worked. It just would have cost more than I was willing to spend."
Hal let out a slow breath. "I'm going to have to report all of this to the Guardians."
"Go ahead," Arthur said, a faint, teasing edge entering his voice. "Should I expect them to try and take me into custody over it like they tried when I eliminated Sinestro?"
Hal actually laughed at that, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders. "Honestly? They're panicking. First time I've seen that out of them in longer than I've been a Lantern. I don't think they know what to actually do about you, now that you've done the universe this big a favor."
"I'm afraid I only did the universe a favor as a side effect," Arthur said. "My reasons were entirely selfish. I wanted the threats to my family gone. The greater good just happened to come along for the ride."
Clark laughed outright at that. "That's quite a way to frame it."
"Is it a good idea," Bruce said, more seriously now, "to go pick a fight with something that powerful, when you have a daughter waiting for you at home now?"
"If I don't act, he attacks Earth regardless," Arthur said, his voice hardening. "He'll level this planet in the time it takes most of you to blink, out of pure retribution, and there's no guarantee he won't reach for something worse than brute force to do it."
Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly. "Anti-Life. That's what he was after."
"Yes," Arthur said. "It exists, here on Earth. I could find it myself, if I wanted to. I'd rather not. Better it stays a mystery than becomes a temptation."
"Wise," Bruce said. "He could have eyes here we haven't accounted for. Beyond Cyborg, I mean."
Arthur's mouth curved faintly. "He seemed genuinely surprised we already knew about that particular connection."
"Of course he was," Bruce said. "He assumed he was always several steps ahead of everyone. Never considered that the only one actually taking action against him this entire time was you, alone, without needing the rest of us at all."
"Well," Arthur said, "it's about time that changed."
Hal shook his head slowly, still visibly working through the sheer scale of it all. "It's still crazy to me. Darkseid. Actually dead."
"For now," Arthur said.
"He can't regenerate that fast, can he?" Clark asked, a note of genuine concern slipping through.
"No," Arthur said. "Don't worry about another avatar showing up any time soon. That's not happening. Not for a very long while, possibly not ever again, the way I dealt with this one."
Their conversation was cut short by a voice from the garden's entrance.
"Am I interrupting something?" Kara asked, hair mussed from sleep, arms wrapped loosely around herself against the cool night air. "What exactly are you all planning out here?"
"Oh, nothing you need to worry about," Clark said quickly, offering a smile so transparently forced it barely qualified as an attempt.
Kara fixed him with a flat, unimpressed look. "Clark. You know you can't lie to save your life, right?"
"We're talking about Darkseid," Arthur said simply, before Clark could dig himself in any further.
"Ugh. Seriously? Right now?" Kara pressed a hand to her face, equal parts exasperated and amused.
"You're right," Bruce said, rising from the low wall. "Not the time or the place for it." He glanced toward the estate's darkened windows, checking something only he seemed to be tracking. "Sadly, I can't stay the night with everyone else. Night shift, as you know."
"Batman, of course." Kara said, though there was genuine warmth beneath the teasing.
"Bruce," Arthur said, before he could leave entirely, "we should hold a proper meeting at the Watchtower. All of us. I want to discuss the people I've selected to inherit the remaining Monarchs' powers."
Clark's brow lifted with immediate interest. "Monarchs' powers?"
Bruce glanced sideways at Arthur. "Very well," he said. "This should be interesting."
Kara tilted her head, studying Arthur with open curiosity now. "You already have people in mind?"
Arthur's eyes glowed a faint, warm violet in the darkness of the garden, a small smile settling across his face.
"But of course."
/-\
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