Chapter 97 - Negotiations

The following morning I was up early to be the mediator for the discussions. All of the involved parties had ample time to talk among themselves to come up with what they needed to happen for them to agree to a ceasefire. Waiting for them at the agreed upon site, a pocket dimension I made, all parties arrived and took their seats. Providing light refreshments and snacks, we sat down to discuss peace.

"Let's start with introductions, the designated representatives will give their names.", I said in a calm tone.

"Meliodas, leader of the Ten Commandments and Demons.", Meliodas said.

"Ajuke, representative for the Devils.", Ajuke stated with a nod to all parties.

"Archangel Michael, current Operator of Heaven.", Michael told everyone.

"Azazel, elected leader of the Fallen Angels.", Azazael chuckled receiving his green tea.

"Kagaya, appointed representative for Humanity.", the Demon Slayer leader stated.

"Now then, as all of you are aware the circumstances of this meeting are to resolve the situation that currently has all parties at odds with each other. Due to outside forces pulling groups here, all of you were forced into this situation without your consent. As the Demons and Demon Slayers have realized, there is no world for you to return to so sending you back is pointless.", I stated, "With that in mind both of your groups arrived after a very deadly war finished on this world. As you have likely discovered the Angels, Fallen Angels, Devils, and the other native races are small in numbers and are not in the best shape for fighting."

Nodding their heads, everyone at the table agreed that this was the case.

"As it currently stands the Devils need humanity to replenish their numbers. Unlike Demons and the other races, Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils have a very low conception rates. It isn't uncommon for these longer lived races to have only a few children.", I informed them, "They are relying on humanity to reincarnate most of their numbers, but that will take time. The parties here agree that the other races are to be given the choice, not forced into replenishing their numbers."

"Agreed.", the three men said.

"The other races want to be assured that they will be spared from the in fighting of the four other groups. Consensual agreements aside, they want to ensure that they will be spared any damages that might come from your groups fighting. During the Great War humanity was caught in the crossfire along with many other races, they want assurances that won't happen again.", I read.

"That is correct.", Kagaya stated, "Humanity, along with the other races, want assurance that you will minimize the bloodshed of our groups."

"My race uses the souls of others to replenish our power.", Meliodas spoke up, "I can't promise they won't seek out others to devour their souls."

"If I can arrange an area for them to eat souls, would that help?", I asked, "There are thousands of worlds out there were life has been extinguished and the undead have taken over. They still have their souls attached, but are no longer considered sane anymore."

"If you can give us a place to harvest souls, I see no issue with their request then.", Meliodas replied.

"We also see no issue as undead aren't counted among us.", Kagaya agreed, "As no innocent souls will be harmed, we can accept this compromise."

Spectre and Ghost Rider told me that using the undead worlds was a smart choice. Presence had problems with those worlds so using the Demons to clean them up would be a blessing in disguise. With the primary concerns out on the table, the finer details started being hashed out. The Demons needed a place to live, all parties wanted to establish some sort of trading system, and most importantly was the defense of this world should more invaders come. The Demons and Demon Slayers both wanted to make a pact with everyone that if invaders came, everyone would put their differences aside to protect this world.

Having already watched their worlds be destroyed, neither of them wanted to witness another world be destroyed. Both of them were invested here now so letting the world burn wasn't an option, it was do or die. Keeping their trump cards a secret as they discussed things, eventually things turned towards potential prisoners being held by the Demons. Admitting to have several hundred people in captivity, Meliodas agreed to release them if the Demons were provided a place to live. They weren't asking for much, just a place they could settle down and start to rebuild what they lost. For them, anything was an improvement over their previous world...as they lived in a shitty place there.

"What are you looking for in particular?", Ajuke asked.

"We need places to farm, mine, and harvest. It doesn't all need to be prairie, but we will need a variety of environments as some specific Demon races prefer specific climates.", Meliodas stated.

"Hmm...", Ajuke replied, "That will be difficult to locate...most of that sort of territory was destroying in the Great War. All sides did despicable things to win, and we are paying for that now."

"That won't be an issue, I can fix the damage to the environment caused by the war.", I submitted to them, "Something that trivial can be done in a few minutes."

"In that case, then I know several locations that would suit your needs. A few weren't ever settled by Devils so the resources should be untouched.", Ajuke said.

"We will need to see them first, but it sounds like we can find a place.", Meliodas agreed, "I do have to ask something...what do you gain from this, Clark?"

"The man I answer to is the one that made the Multiverse.", I informed all of them, "There are countless timelines throughout the multiverse, and with that lots of trouble happens. He gave everyone Free Will so it shouldn't be surprise that conflict would arise with that. I have been tasked with keeping innocent people safe and free of undue suffering. If I can have you all agree and have peace, this is one less world I need to focus my attention on. What you don't understand is that this world is one in billions that I have to help repair. The World Barrier shattering was my fault to begin with, I fought the former Entity of Death who was wiping out entire universes and that battle led to this."

Showing them the battle with Nekron, all of them got a better understand of why this had happened. No one here blamed me for it, as they realized they would have been a target eventually. Telling them that the barrier would close in a few more months, I said that right now my biggest focus was on the two groups that were causing the most issues...the Dark Knights and the Joker Squad. While the Dark Knights only consisted of Batman Who Laughs, and a few remaining people on Joker's side...they all seemed to have a connection to Mandrakk which was my problem.

"Why are you concerned?", Mitsuri inquired.

"He is from a race that lived above the Multiverse. Depending on his knowledge of it, he could potentially know where specific worlds were.", I told her before explaining how that played out in the worst case scenario.

As I gave the details, everyone at the tables expression hardened. Telling them that entire timelines had been wiped out already, I said that it was critical I stop them from setting off more bombs. Seeing the swath of devastation a single bomb could cause, all of them got the idea.

"That said, it's important balance my time managing your worlds too. There is no point saving the Multiverse if all of you kill each other before I finish.", I chuckled.

"That is a fair point.", Ajuke stated.

"Is there anything we can do to help?", Elizabeth asked.

"Unfortunately no, the enemies we are facing could easily destroy a planet on accident. None of you are that powerful, it would be suicide to have you assist me.", I replied.

"It sounds like you need us to keep the peace here so you can focus elsewhere.", Azazel said with a grin, "That isn't a bad deal...that said, we should probably make some sort of connection to you."

"As I have made abundantly clear to one of my lovers...", I said thinking of Wanda, "We have priorities to take care of first."

"Fair enough.", he agreed.

Hashing out a few remaining items, the parties at the table signed the written agreement. Making sure each of them received a copy, I immediately took care of the environmental damages and got the Demons set up. Setting up a portal one of the Zombie Marvel worlds, I made sure they were okay with the quality which they were. With that I left them to get situated and returned to human world to help with things there.

Repairing the damaged areas, and assisting with burying the dead I did what I could to help people get closure. Surprisingly Issie and company were unharmed...though I doubted they would ever want to mingle with another race now. That said...I could see they were still into their perverted individuals.

"Excuse me kind sir.", a woman said walking towards me, "A moment of your time, if I may."

"Sure miss, it's not a-", I replied turning around to see two fox ears on top of a very curvy woman.

Doing my best not to stare at her ears, tails, or chest...this was truly a test of my willpower.

"Hehe, how gentleman like of you to look me in the eyes.", she laughed with a smile, "I am relieved that our savior wasn't a shameless beast."

"Savior?", I asked.

"My name is Yasaka, and this", she said pulling her daughter around to her side, "this is my daughter Kunou. When the fighting started I had to evacuate our Youkia brethen here. It may seem bad, but the Demons attacked us first whenever we were in the area."

"It was probably due to the enormous energy your soul is producing. Having connections to the Leylines likely made all of you prime targets.", I told her.

"Either way, I want to thank you personally.", she said with a soft smile, "If you would like, I would like to have tea with you sometime. As someone from another world, it would be very enjoyable to here your many stories."

"Of course, I will let you know when I can arrange that.", I answered with a smile.

"I look forward to hear from you.", she giggled before taking her daughters hand and leaving.

Shaking her tails as she left, I saw a smile creep across her face as she gave me a wink.

'Maybe I should make time to see her sooner...', I thought getting back to work.

"Haha, you like Kitsunes and Bunny girls.", Ghost Rider teased.

"What happened to having higher priorities first?", Spectre jabbed with a snicker.

"Fuck you both...", I retorted, "Don't get on my case about that, it was clear she was simply interested in me."

"Uh huh.", the two of laughed like old men.

Grunting with frustration, I hurried up and finished my work. When that was finished I sat down with Kagaya to go over the plans for rebuilding. Humanity would need to rebuild itself, and the Demon Slayers wanted to assist with that. As the designated leader, Kagaya was busy sorting out duties to other people to speed things along...even if it was only a little.

Parting ways after that, I went to check on Rias. Having just recovered from her sever injuries, I wanted to ensure there wasn't any mental trauma from going through that. Answering the door, Tsubaki greeted me with a friendly smile. Letting her know I was here to check up on Rias for any mental trauma, she invited me into the home. Telling me that she could get Rias, she was going to sit me down in the main room but instead...we walked in on Sona and Serafall tussling over a piece of clothing.

"I refuse to wear it.", Sona said.

"Come on So!! You have to wear it!! You will look so cute in this costume!!", Serafall shouted.

"I don't want to cosplay like you do..."

"It's a magical dress!! When you were younger you always wanted to wear one!!", Serafall laughed grabbing Sona's top, "Now let's get you changed!"

Ripping the front of her shirt open, Sona stumbled backwards and bumped into. Slowly looking up at me, her face turned beet red as she realized she was only wearing a bra in front of me. Closing her shirt, Sona scurried away and called her sister an idiot.

"Oppies.", Serafall giggled, "Teehee!"

"Is this how you Devils greet your guests?", I asked feinting ignorance.

"...no...", Serafall said trying to slip away, "I didn't know you were here."

"I came to check on Rias, her injuries may have been healed but the mental trauma may still linger.", I told her.

"Oh okay.", she replied turning around in a hurry, "GGGRRRAAAYYYFFFIIIAAA!!! Little Rias has a-"

A fist slammed into Serafall's stomach, and caused her to drop to her knees groaning in pain. Having not realized that Grayfia had walked in, she had turned and started yelling in her face. Giving me a smile, Grayfia apologized for Serafall who was still gasping for air.

"She can get a little carried away sometimes.", Grayfia told me, "Sometimes she needs to be brought down to reality when she is causing problems. I just saw poor Sona running down the hallway in tears...did you have something to do with that?"

"I...I...am...sorry.", Serafall groaned.

"She might not forgive you for a few hundred years if you don't apologize properly.", Grayfia told her.

Bolting down the hallway in a hurry, it was like the punch never happened.

"Forgive her, she hasn't quite given up on her childish side yet.", Grayfia giggled, "Thank you for coming to look at Rias, I will let her know you are here. Please have a seat, it will only be a moment."

Thanking her, I took a seat and listened to Serafall pound on Sona's door apologizing for what she did. Chuckling to myself, I waited a few minutes for Rias and company to arrive. Greeting them again, I informed Rias that I wanted to make sure there wasn't any lingering mental damage.

"Occasionally people that suffer traumatic injuries have phantom pains long after the injury recovers. I wanted to see if you were experiencing any of that.", I explained.

"I understand, and actually I have noticed I have less tolerance to heat. My usual shower temperature is a bit too hot now, will this last forever?", she asked.

"No, you will have to incrementally increase the heat to recalibrate your mind. Magic wouldn't help here because messing with a brain can cause more damage than good.", I chuckled.

"Understood, I can manage if that is all I needed to do.", she said.

Giving her a few other things to try, I started to explain them when Kelex rang me. Coming up as an emergency alert I stopped what I was doing to take the call. Stepping away, I answered and asked him what was wrong.

"Sir, we have detected anomalies along our World Barrier. It appears someone is trying to get in.", Kelex stated.

"I understand, alert the UN and start evacuating people to shelters. Kal-El Legion is to prioritize the protection of the civilians, and transport my pregnant wives to the Fortress. I am not allowing them to risk the children they are carrying.", I ordered.

"They have already come to the Fortress. Currently they are organizing the Agency remotely having assumed you would ask that of them.", Kelex told me.

"Yeah, you can thank us later!", Rumi huffed.

"We knew you'd do this so we came ourselves.", Yu stated.

"Make sure you wipe the floor with those bastards!", Blackfire shouted, "We were in the middle of shopping for baby clothes!!"

"Also, the children are here with us.", Kara told me, "Go get'em!!"

Hanging up the call, I told them I had to cut the meeting short as someone was trying to break into my universe. Promising to see them later I took off returning home to confront the enemy.

---MHA Universe (Clark's World)---

Arriving onsite I had Kelex relay the information to me. From what I could tell it looked like two forces were trying to penetrate the field I had around our universe. Sensing a familiar essence in one of them, I called the Fortress and told Jean to come down. Asking what was wrong, I said an evil version of her was coming and this was a golden opportunity for her to get even stronger. Coming immediately to join me, along with the other women, we evacuate everyone in the immediate area to shelters that would keep them safe.

Thirty minutes after that, I allowed them to break the barrier and enter our universe. As I had expected both Dark Phoenix and Brainiac empowered Darkseid came out of the portal followed by a horde of Doomsday Parademons. Deciding to not let too many of them in, I forcibly closed the portal trapping them in our universe. Turning back to see their portal close, the two of them were confused as to why it suddenly stopped.

"You picked the wrong world to invade...Darkseid.", I said telepathically to him, "This is my universe, and you aren't welcome here."

"A minor setback, but nothing I didn't have a plan for.", Darkseid replied pulling out a Kryptonite blade, "This unit harmonizes with the universe I activate it in Kryptonian, I assume you know what that means."

"It means you were more foolish than I took you for.", I said floating behind him.

Turning around to face me, he knew something was wrong because I wasn't getting weaker. Grabbing his blade, I bent it like a pretzel and handed back to him.

"Error, Kryptonian physiology is weakened in the presence of Kryptonite.", Brainiac said in a panicked tone, "Superman is Kryptonian, and should be killed by Kryptonite."

"I am sorry to disappoint, but I outgrew that weakness.", I replied with a smirk on my face, "Smile for the camera!"

Before he could reply, sucker punched into space leaving Dark Phoenix for the others. Thinking she could use the opportunity to cause chaos on the planet, Dark Phoenix descended and was greeted by Diana and Jean who were waiting for her. Having fought underdeveloped versions of herself already, she let her guard down and tried to attack them. Instead of easily overwhelming them, the two women drove her straight into the ground faster than she could react. Picking herself back up slowly, she wiped the blood from her mouth and stared at Jean.

"You aren't a wimp like our other copies.", she stated.

"I am also not a cold hearted bitch like you are.", Jean retorted.

"Haha, you think...", she started to say before realizing something.

Trying to probe Jean's mind, Dark Phoenix found that there was no crack in her defenses for her to exploit. Not only that, she noticed that this version of Jean wasn't emotionally unstable which through her off even more.

"You are very different...", Dark Phoenix said detecting a very faint sign of life within Jean, "You are pregnant...just how different are you? I haven't come across-"

Having taken what she said as a threat to our child, Jean unleashed her full capability on Dark Phoenix. Grunting as she tried to maintain her position, Jean forced her to her knees as blood started coming out of Dark Phoenix's nose. Walking forward Jean grabbed her face, and started repeatedly slamming her knee into her face.

"You will not touch our child!!", she hissed, "Don't you dare think I will let you lay a finger on my baby!!"

Using her psychic power to further increase her strength, Dark Phoenix was quickly overwhelmed and was unable to keep up. Thanks to the team training Jean had done, she was more than able to seal Dark Phoenix's movements and quickly break her defenses. Once Jean broke her mental defenses, it was game over. Ripping what information she wanted out of her, Dark Phoenix screamed as blood poured from her eyes, ears, and nose. After taking everything she could Jean gave her no mercy, and mentally crippled her leaving her with the mind of a child.

"Damn Jean, that was really brutal.", Susan said in shock.

"This child means everything to Clark...I don't want to take any chances with their safety.", she replied with a smile.

"Jeez...are we all gonna be that crazy?", Mina asked.

"What do you mean gonna?", Jiro teased, "You are long gone."

"Hey!", Mina said jumping on Jiro, "You take that back!"

"Will you two stop.", Jennifer sighed, "You can't just act like this in public when we are working."

"Whose watching? They are all in shelters.", Mina replied having Jiro in a choke hold.

Pulling them apart, Momo said that they needed to seal Dark Phoenix's power then send her to the Phantom Zone. Agreeing on that, they radioed Kelex to have him send the equipment over to remove her power. Returning with a few bits of Brainiac, Diana asked how I had dealt with Darkseid.

"He is having a personal meeting with some very disgruntled higher beings.", I snickered, "I dumped him in a Lovecraft Universe after sealing his power...they had a lot of followers in universes he helped destroy."

"Lovecraft?", Diana asked.

"Hehe, I will have to explain it to you later.", I chuckled, "Let's just say they are entities that warp space by simply breathing."

"Oh, so then he will be busy then.", she replied with a smirk.

"I am not sure there is anything left of him now that could identify him.", I replied with a smirk looking at Dark Phoenix, "Jean, you did quite a number on her."

"I hope you weren't planning on trying to rehabilitate her.", she told me.

"No, I already have the only Jean I want.", I said giving her a hug, "I am happy you are getting stronger, it's hard to believe you how you were."

"Don't remind me.", she laughed with a smile.

Sending her into the Phantom Zone, we notified the World Governments that the threat had passed now. After briefing them about the situation, Jean told me that she needed to speak with the group as a whole. Nodding my head we all gathered at the Fortress of Solitude to talk.

---Fortress of Solitude---

Once we were all gathered together, Jean informed us of what she had learned. The remaining members of both groups had joined together with Mandrakk to reset the Multiverse. Batman Who Laughs had made a bomb that would shatter the already damaged World Barriers which would cause all the worlds to collapse in on themselves. This would jumble everything up, and theoretically reshuffle the deck in their favor. What they didn't seem to get was that it also ran the risk of completely killing everyone.

"What do you mean kill!?", Melissa asked.

"Mandrakk's people feed on something called the Bleed, it what flows around us when we jump between the worlds. Resetting the Multiverse means Cosmic Armor Superman and would be potential rewound out of time leaving only me to face to him.", I told them, "He has been holding Mandrakk back alone, but it looks like that will no longer work."

"So what do we do? Do we call the Alliance together, and try to take them out?", Fury questioned.

"No, Mandrakk is way to strong for them. Prime One Million and I will have to back him up, all of you would be fodder to him.", I told them, "I need to call him, and let him know the situation."

"Clark...be careful.", they told me me.

"I will, I have to come back for the kids don't I?", I chuckled with a smile.

Giving Prime One Million the news, he agreed to meet up with me and then returned to spend the evening with my family.

---------------------------------------------------------

Author Note: We draw near the end of the novel, but we will go out on a high note I promise. Anyways, I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend. I am on call this weekend so next chapter won't be till Monday, apologies. Man's got eat and pay them bills!