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Chapter 173: The Darkness In All Of Us VIII

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"What happened?" A man spoke, his lips trembling in what seemed to be anger. He was quite muscular with a short blonde haircut.

His attire was the most strange thing about him, a green uniform with a red coat. The strangeness comes in when looking at the symbol on his chest, the symbol of Nazism.

The man was called Captain Nazi, a superhuman who survived through life since the fall of Nazi Germany.

At the moment, he was standing in a certain hall with a bunch of other people, or creatures, all part of the Society of Villains.

"You know what happened." Responding to him was an elderly gentleman, very calm in contrast to most of the other members. He was adorned in a black suit, complemented with a black hat.

"No! I fucking don't!! I've never felt so stupid, so tell me Outsider, why the fuck did any of this happen??!" Captain Nazi seemed quite emotional, filled with hate even.

The Outsider as he was called remained calm in the face of the man's outburst. He seemed to be a leading figure in the group.

"What happened was that we poked the hornet's nest, a nest of something we do not understand." The outsider spoke, bending down a bit to turn on a monitor, giving view to a bald shiny head, Lex Luthor.

"So you decided to infiltrate the Roses huh?" It was a live feed as Lex instantly spoke, albeit he didn't get much reaction out of the Outsider. They both seem to have a high stature in the Society.

"It was the right move," The Outsider stressed, "I had many plans to stop things from going too awry, but I didn't expect things to go wrong so quickly and in such an incomprehensible way."

"It's your job to predict such things," Lex responded.

"I apologize for not expecting someone to be mad at us for inviting him to the Society. It makes plenty of sense, so I do wonder why I didn't see it coming." The Outsider responded swiftly.

Their words were quick, creating quite the tension in the hall, making everyone else shut up.

"The solution was very simple. Do not attack something you do not understand! Learn about him first, understand what he would do in such situations, then and only then can you act! Or at least, speak to me first..."

Lex was a little harsher in his words, and more commanding which seemed to earn the Outsider's ire, "That's the problem! Do you not understand? I studied his actions, but I still didn't expect this!"

Lex remained silent for a bit before releasing a sigh, "Perhaps I overreacted... He did something similar to me long ago, so I should've warned you about him."

Ian once made a deal with Lex. It didn't seem like anything could go wrong. Lex just took the Kryptonite stones handed to him to study and took them to the secret labs... The labs were emptied clean not long after.

"I still don't get it. Why is he mad for getting an invite from us?" Once he saw things have calmed down, Captain Nazi Asked again.

"I'm not sure. He either didn't like the fact that we took so long to invite him or because the invite was used more as a consolation for our attempt at infiltrating the Roses." Even the Outsider wasn't sure.

Lex on the other hand had a completely different story, "I think he doesn't like the fact that we assumed him to be a villain, that we lumped him along the likes of us."

"Huh? How does that make any sense? Everyone knows him to be a villain." Captain Nazi questioned with confusion.

"Everyone but himself... Perhaps he lives in delusion, or... He wants something from us." A bright light passed in Lex Luthor as he thought of a possibility, "I might know how to stop him..."

Ian was simply too much for the Society. He makes no sense. He was only back for a week, and he already caused plenty of chaos by starting an all-out hunt of the Society.

And well, he was successful despite not making a move himself. The Society of villains suffered a lot at the hands of the Roses, mostly Layla's doing.

While people were losing their minds over him, Ian paid a visit to a friend, a depressed friend.

He found her alone in a museum. She was staring at a statue before her, a statue of her, a valiant brave hero. Ian noted her depressive mood though her determination didn't seem to be that affected.

"You're finally back." The woman spoke, seemingly sensing Ian before he made himself know, not like he trying to hide himself anyway.

"Yup," Ian spoke, walking closer to her, "Never thought the infamous Wonder woman to one day fall to such a state."

"Fall?" Diana shook her head, "I'm indeed depressed, but fall? No, this is just a normal mental state that'll pass. I'm still exactly the same person I was. Moreover, you've seen worse of me."

"Oh? So you remember?" Her words brightened Ian's mood as he stood behind her and hugged her from behind, quite an intimate position.

"I just killed someone not long ago. You aren't afraid you'll be my next victim?" Diana asked though she did nothing to stop him.

Then again, Ian didn't do much, he just wanted to comfort her, kinda, "You wish. You lost the last time, so what makes you think you can win this time?"

"I was much weaker last time," This simple conversation somehow brought a smile out of the depressed Diana, a competitive smile that is.

She remembers everything that has happened in the flashpoint. Ian thought what he had done didn't work, but it did. It just took quite a bit of time.

She remembers their battle in the flashpoint, and it seems like she wants a rematch.

"Yeah, I kind of sense it, so go easy on me please, and definitely don't kill me. I'm quite vulnerable to death after all." 

Ian smiled, making a joke that she seemed to understand. He did tell her of his Death immunity after all, and she remembers it despite it being a different timeline, all due to his Death force.

"Now?" Diana asked with a bit of anticipation.

Ian answered with actions, not words as a second later, they were on the moon, the dark side of the moon, but they could see very clearly. His magic also worked to create a safe environment for them.  

"Wait... Before we start, what do you think about what I've done?" Diana held his hands, stopping him from unhugging her as she asked, trying to sound calm as she spoke.

"Hm? About killing one person," Ian couldn't help but let out a laugh, remembering his talk with Destruction, one of the endless, "Rookie numbers. Let's have that talk when you grow up."

The next second Ian was thrown to the other side of the moon, intentionally of course because his fall created a crater as a symbol that he was once there.