111 Disappearance

I glanced at the empty bed. The sheets were disheveled, which made it look like she had left in a hurry. I touched the sheets, they were cold, so she should have gone for a couple of minutes already. Except for Cumber, the rest of the house was empty as well, but other than not being purposefully cleaned up, it looked like it was before, so there couldn't have been a big fight. Perhaps she truly had just gone to pick something up in another dimension, but the pit in my stomach told me something else and my instincts were rarely wrong. Diana stepped inside the room with a frown.

"She is nowhere on the island either." She informed me to which I nodded. With my life force detection, I couldn't sense her anywhere in this universe. She also wasn't in our universe, otherwise, I would have noticed her when we got back from Olympus, so where the hell was she? Even the anchors I had placed on her belt and clothes couldn't give me a clear direction. It was even more worrying that the connection to it was worse than when Trigon had obscured the anchors' location with his realm specifically targeting me.

Either she was farther away than I could reasonably sense or someone was specifically obstructing my ki sense and anchor points even better than Trigon was able to. Just thinking that someone was doing a better job than an ancient demon that had lots of opportunities to learn from Cumber, didn't fill me with a lot of confidence.

Such an accuracy to obstruct my anchor points was scary as it would imply great knowledge about me, my capabilities, and my techniques. Another option would be that they were just crazily powerful, regardless, all options weren't giving me any good feelings.

I walked downstairs and pushed open the door to Cumber's room. The door broke off its hinges and was flung across the room. Cumber opened his eyes from his cross-legged sitting position and looked at me with a piercing gaze, the kind that let you know that there was something simmering beneath it. However, all in all, compared to his initial temperament he was rather docile now. Perhaps being beaten twice in a row had reigned in his temper a bit.

I directly went up to him, looking down at him. He met my gaze without flinching, though a grin spread on his face. "Where is she?" I asked as I tried my best to stay calm. Getting hysterical and hasty would be bound to cause mistakes, so I just watched him as he smirked.

"Who do you mean?" It didn't even need a millisecond for my hand to wrap around his neck. He tried to pry it off to no avail. If I was fuming inside, I would have enjoyed the dumbfounded look he had when he realized that he couldn't break the hold I had on him. He then tried to stand up but I forced him to stay seated with one arm, causing the bed's legs to snap right off and the ground to crack.

He knew I meant business and listened when I started speaking in a calm tone that barely covered the rising agitation and anger I felt. "The only reason you are still alive is because you are useful to me, but that doesn't mean I won't kill you if you piss me off." He snarled, clearly pissed he was put in a passive position. It took him a moment to consider things and for my hand to squeeze around his neck that he slowly raised his hands.

"I don't know… where your woman is. I was recuperating h-here when she suddenly disappeared." He responded a bit strained as my hand squeezing his throat made it difficult for him to articulate or breathe. As he spoke, I forcefully broke into his mind-space and read his surface thoughts, he appeared to be saying the truth. I let go of him as I saw he was cooperating.

"Any other life force appearing at that time?" He shook his head. "Do you know which of your pals might have done this?" After all, he was part of the villain group, so he must have a clue about who could have done this.

Regretfully he shook his head at that question as well. "I haven't interacted with the local weaklings." Of course, he would say something like this. If the other person was a magician or just masked their life force, then this guy would just ignore them completely since he wouldn't realize how truly powerful they were.

"So, where does your group usually meet?" If he hadn't noticed one of them being exceedingly powerful through their magical abilities, then I would just take a look myself. Through closely interacting with demons and magicians I could somewhat sense whether they were formidable or not, so I would be better experienced to tell how strong they were and if they could hide from my senses, I would just try to kill them. Let's see whether they would hide their powers then.

"We don't meet up at all. Some of the locals know where and who you guys would attack or go to, so they just speak into our minds or whatever. We just show up there at the same time. Most of the time Hearts take charge and contact me when there is an opponent I could fight." He revealed nonchalantly while picking his ear with his pinky.

It looked like he just goes along with them since he could get a good fight if he does, which meant that the others might meet up to discuss plans or this Hearts guy already had a plan in mind and was just using the others like chess pieces.

"What does this Hearts guy want?" He smirked at my question.

"Nothing for you to worry about. He just wants to kill all gods." He simply stated as if that was a normal ambition to have, though it truly would mean that we shouldn't have any conflict, or did Hearts want to take out all possible opposition before he used his wish to kill all gods or whatever his wish was going to be? Either way, with all this information, questioning Cumber anymore would be useless to me. He didn't know a lot about the plans, he was the brawn after all.

Besides I wasn't even sure whether this group was really responsible for Raven's disappearance. If I couldn't figure it out then I would have to search for them by myself. "Nathan," Diana called out as I stepped out of the room. "I am not sure if it's related, but when I ascended, I was able to perceive large parts of the multiverse. I noticed that there was a crack on Chronoa's barrier."

My pupils constricted when I heard this. The warning of Chronoa's was still vivid in my memories. They were fighting something powerful, and they would be attracted by my presence and anyone I had interacted with since they would suspect I was against them. They would torture them until they have information about my whereabouts or realized I wouldn't be lured out. If there was a gap in the barrier and their enemy entered it, then there was a high possibility that they had gotten to Raven when I was away.

As my mind churned endless possibilities Diana continued, "The crack is close to the Rock of Eternity, it's the headquarters of the Shazam family, maybe they know- Nathan you okay?" She asked concerned. It was only when she placed a hand on my shoulder that I realized I was shaking. Even in death that fucker, Trigon was still giving us trouble.

I exhaled a long breath before nodding. "I am good." I was in fact not good. The explosive kis inside my body swirled around, wreaking and rebuilding my body wherever they passed through. My emotions were stirring them up and I needed to release it soon. My body was like a boiling pot with no opening to vent the pressure inside.

Diana squeezed my shoulder encouragingly. "Let's meet up with the others and come up with a way to search for her together. The Justice League will help as well" I nodded, acknowledging that this would be the smartest approach. Although they didn't have the powerful senses I had, they might come up with something that I wouldn't know about. Maybe some magical tracking or technological device to figure out where they disappeared to-

As the thought appeared in my mind, I remembered something I recently got my hands on. I glanced at the bracelet donning my forearm and directly activated probably the highest tracking technology I had at my disposal. It transformed into a light that formed itself into the Mobius chair.

Although the chair wouldn't be able to see anything if we used our powers to influence our surroundings and caused space-time to function weirdly like when I powered up or Raven used her powers, it should pick up on everything else. So, whenever my ki was suppressed I should be able to see my past.

I sat on it, and I let my mind connect with the chair. The information influx was almost overwhelming as I gained a cosmical awareness of nearly endless things at the same time, but the chair prevented any mishaps and I was used to sterner mental exercises. I quickly filtered all the unnecessary information and searched for the ones I wanted. The view of my house inside Giblet's universe quickly came up from the endless stream of input.

I saw everything with a blurry film covering the scene. Perhaps it had something to do with my ki infused in my body? Regardless, I watched what was the start of our sex session until she woke up from what seemed to be a bad dream. There didn't seem to be anything out of normal. Even the chair couldn't pick up any abnormalities besides the obscurity caused by us. I frowned slightly as I watched Raven disappear from sight. I tried to follow her trace, but she completely vanished as if she had been scrapped out of reality.

After trying to move the chair's perception, I quickly realized that it couldn't look beyond Chronoa's barrier. Probably because it messed with the laws of time. However, this information already gave me a clue.

"The chair can't detect her, which means she might have already left this part of the multiverse. If we want to find her, we can't do it from here." I calmly stated as I digested the information at hand.

To find her, we would need to exit the protection of Chronoa's barrier, which meant confronting the Z-Fighters' enemies before the one-year time limit was up. The moment we exited we would be governed by the rest of the multiverse's laws and the time we experienced wouldn't be accelerated anymore. Of course, I was painfully aware that if this guess turned out to be wrong it would mean she was gone… A thought I didn't want to entertain.

"Let's go back first," Diana said and I agreed, though we made a quick trip to Giblet first. I informed him about the current situation, and I told him to keep an eye on Cumber, so the Saiyan wouldn't get any funny ideas. At that point, I didn't even remind my brother to not kill Cumber as I had more important issues to focus on. He readily accepted and we made our way back to Portland in our universe.

Shayera and Maxima had just arrived again, completely geared up. It looked like they had picked up a fresh armor set and a sword for Maxima. They were about to join us in the other universe as Maxima raised her arm on which she wore the teleportation bracelet. Now that we had returned, they stopped their movement. Before I explained the situation to them, I wanted to gather the others as well to only explain it once.

With Diana, Shayera, and Maxima here, the only ones missing from our group were Kara and Felicia. I sensed for their position, preparing to cut their bonding-trip short and bring them back to discuss things. A moment later I couldn't help but become anxious. The way my heart started accelerating made it seem that it would jump out of it at any moment.

My fists clenched as I sensed for their anchor points more thoroughly. I knew that they had gone to Shiva in this universe, so I should have picked up on their life force almost instantly, but when I spread out my perception, I couldn't get a lick of their life force, their anchor points like Raven's were still there, but besides that, I couldn't figure out where they were. Dread settled in my stomach as my mind raced through the possibilities.

It wouldn't be strange if the enemy just kidnapped anyone that wasn't in my vicinity. "Nathan, speak to us." Diana pleaded as she shook me.

"They are gone."

I instantly summoned the Mobius chair again and sat on it while ignoring the questioning gazes from Shayera and Maxima. Diana's eyes widened in realization but didn't say anything to break my concentration. I let the chair extend my perception through time and followed Kara and Felicia as they left Giblet's universe and appeared in ours.

As expected, they went to Shiva to get some training. Shiva suggested going to a dimension where she usually trained against some lizard demons since otherwise Kara wouldn't have been strained by normal training with humans as Kryptonian reflexes would make intuition naught.

The lizard dimension was something that Felicia seemed to be familiar with as she questioned Shiva about having made it to her training grounds, and I remembered her mentioning entering it before. The dimension didn't seem to be too powerful or at least wasn't able to block the chair's perception as I could clearly see the interior of it.

At first, they started training by hunting down these lizard demons before they were taken by surprise and pulled into a portal. It looked like a portal created by the mother boxes. Did Darkseid have a hand in this? My jaw tightened as I grit my teeth. "Kara and Felicia were kidnapped as well."

"Wait, kidnapped as well. You mean Raven was…" Shayera asked shocked. In terms of strength and combat ability, among the women Raven ranked supreme, while Kara came close third after Diana, so hearing that both have been kidnapped made it clear that the opponent was a powerful one. Of course, it didn't matter how powerful the other side was, as long as I got my fingers on them, I would grind them to dust.

"I-" As I opened my mouth, I wanted to confirm her words as I was suspecting that they were all kidnapped but then shook my head. "I am not sure whether Raven was kidnapped as well. Raven just vanished for some reason without a clue, while Kara and Felicia were sucked into a portal made by a mother box." I shouldn't put my suspicion as facts otherwise it might hinder future investigations and hints that point in another direction.

"Is it Grail?" Maxima mumbled, making me remember the new god that had disappeared without a trace as well.

"Maybe," I admitted-

"What about your anchors, they should be able to pick up something right?" Maxima followed up with a frown to which I just shook my head.

"That was the first thing I tried." Although god ki was a part of me and theoretically made space and time only a slight hurdle, it could still be obstructed. The only thing I could say for sure was that the ki I placed into their clothes was still present and that was only in a vague sense. "The anchors are still there, so they should still be fine, but I am not sure where they are as I can't get a good grasp on their position."

"Fuck." Maxima uttered. I took a breath and then opened a channel to the Justice League, so they would be in the loop and not be taken by surprise if they got attacked as well. I started to tell them what I was able to figure out through the chair and the suspicion I had about Grail, the motherbox, and Raven's sudden disappearance.

"I'll see what I can figure out through Oa." John supplied without hesitation.

"I will ask around in other universes for help. Perhaps they had noticed anything that might be useful. I will open up channels for them to contact us as quickly as possible." Clark added solemnly. The entire Justice League had been busy training and opted to visit other universes to learn and experience more, coupled with the different universal laws, they grew more powerful as well.

I also had no doubt that with their personality they would be able to make friends with the local heroes as well, especially Clark. He had a personality that you want to make friends with as a hero, so I had no doubt that he had some useful connections.

"I'll check my channels as well." Bruce supplied, not giving much of what he would do, but I had high hopes he would come up with results anyway. He was a smarter man than I was, after all.

"I'll try to connect with the Speed Force and see whether I can get it to spit something out," Barry answered while in the background noises appeared and vanished as he was rushing past something.

"I don't have much to offer, so I will hold the position here and see whether she appears in the meantime," J'onn added.

"I'll contact the magical community across the multiverse, maybe someone heard about an invading force or something else making the rounds. I'll also contact Constantine and see whether he can come up with something." Zatara offered and I couldn't help but be grateful. They didn't hesitate to offer whatever support they could think of at the moment. Truly, those were people you would want in your corner.

"Thank you. I owe you… and stay safe, try to go in groups." I genuinely responded.

"Hmph, we don't need thanks for helping our colleagues and we can take care of ourselves," John answered with a snort.

"Yeah, what the green guy said!" Barry said before groaning and almost shrieking while dodging something.

"We will be in touch." They then cut the connection with the exception of Clark.

"You are going to where Kara and Felica disappeared, right?" He asked and I just kept silent. "Keep safe and don't rush things… And get her back."

"Of course, see you at the reunion." I didn't have to see him to know he smiled slightly before he also cut the connection. Then I put my earpiece on stand-by, so if they had important news to share, they could leave a message or contact me at any time, at least when I was in range, which was the local universe – thanks to some magical enhancement.

"I want to investigate the dimension where Kara and Felicia had disappeared in. It's the only lead we have without exiting Chronoa's barrier." Shayera and Maxima nodded and put a hand on my body without hesitation.

"Don't even think about leaving us behind." Shayera threatened to which Maxima just nodded.

"I wasn't going to," I responded as I knew they would be too stubborn to take a no for an answer and I wasn't the only one that had grown close to the three now missing. Besides what if I left them behind, only to find them gone as well when I got back? Since someone was targeting the ones around me, I wanted to have them in sight.

Of course, it might have been stupid since I was hoping to meet whoever was able to snatch away the most powerful women in my group with Giblet and Cumber being none the wiser, but I needed to take that chance. If I was around, I could at least try and protect them.

"Nathan, I will ask the gods whether they noticed something or have some information about what might have happened," Diana stated though I could see the pleading in her eyes for me to understand and not stop her. The determination she had wasn't something I could change. She knew I would want her close in case they tried to take her as well. "Don't worry, I have grown plenty strong."

Diana said and flexed her biceps, making me smile wearily. She then cupped my face and gave me a kiss. I closed my eyes and just let the moment wash over me until our lips separated again. "The gods might have information or ways to find something out we otherwise can't. Maybe they can connect to the rest of the multiverse through their true forms." She was right, but it was still difficult for me.

"…I will wait for your good news," I said after a moment of hesitation. She smiled widely, appreciating that I was relying on her and trusting her ability to handle her own. She then flew into the sky as a golden beam of god ki. For a moment, I watched her before turning my sight to the other two.

"Maybe we should bring along a motherbox as well. It might resonate with the portal that had been opened there." Maxima suggested and we quickly went to Almerac and got one of her mother boxes that she gathered. I didn't ask her where she got them and just placed my hands on their shoulders.

"Let's go," I uttered, making them nod determined before we vanished from the spot and reappeared in the lizard dimension. There were still hundreds of demons even after Kara, Felicia, and Shiva had wreaked havoc here. I released my aura to announce my presence. Some stronger lizards directly looked up and I captured them telekinetically before bringing them closer.

I didn't bother asking them as they were too weak to resist my telepathic intrusion. I sifted through their minds and even though they were rather high up, they didn't know about any deals or plan to lure them into a trap or something similar. The only thing they knew about the others was the fact that Shiva had been harassing them for no apparent reason.

After going through their minds, I focused on the spot where they vanished from. I tried to sense something, but I came up with nothing. "Maxima?" She pulled out the mother box and through the subtle waves of psychic energy, I guessed that she was commanding or communicating with it. It took her a couple of minutes before her eyes widened.

"There is something, but it can't open a connection. It's too far away and guarded, though it can bring us closer." Maxima said with excitement. This was the only clue besides leaving Chronoa's barrier.

"Bring us there." The portal was already created before I even finished my words and we directly stepped inside. The familiar sensation of teleporting through squeezed space appeared and in an instant, we appeared to be wherever 'closer' was-

I looked around for a moment before realizing where we were. "Tch." In the distance was the place where Trigon's trap had been when we had confronted him and before we were transported to the Rock of Eternity. So, this lead also pointed to the crack of Chronoa's barrier. From here I was even able to sense the Rock of Eternity. The direction of my anchor points was also getting clearer.

I hesitated for a moment before I raised my hand. My fist was covered in a red-green flame-like ki before I punched out. The reality in front of us seemed to have cracked like it was glass. We then leaped forward into the mess that reality seemed to have become. Now that I focused on it, I could feel a slight shift, without it being too noticeable. It was something I must have missed the first time I was here.

We entered whatever barrier – probably Chronoa's, I had smashed my power against and found ourselves underneath the Rock of Eternity again. As I looked up, I could sense the direction of my anchor points, it pointed me above the Rock of Eternity. I was guessing that Shazam's headquarters was at the borders of Chronoa's barrier and whatever lay beyond was where the others had been dragged to.

The conflicting powers inside me calmed down as I forced them into the perfect mixture I needed to transform. My powers skyrocketed as I entered Primal Saiyan Limit Breaker. Red fur appeared and my aura turned into a pink signalizing the godly ki that was infused with the form.

I enveloped Shayera and Maxima with my telekinesis and my ki, so I could pull them with me. Just as I was prepared to shoot in the direction of my anchor points, a large life force signature appeared in front of us. I squinted my eyes and found Shazam appearing in front of us. Lightning surrounded his forms and his aura seemed to have grown almost tenfold.

"It's you!" Shazam hollered, probably not having fond memories from our last encounter. If I had known where the others were exactly, I would have ignored him, but since the crack in Chronoa's barrier was close to his lair, I figured he might have some information before we decided to break out of the barrier's protection.

We stopped right in front of him. He looked like he had something to say if his urgent expression was anything to go by.

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A/N: As a heads up, I will be ending the story soon. Perhaps in the next few chapters, might take another 10 chapters or so.