In the end, the decision is made. They'll fight Darkseid in a pocket dimension… which will in turn be located on Pluto. Can't take too many precautions, after all.
Which is why they also don't rush to go and try to kill Grail's father the very next day or anything like that. As much as Lucien wants to try and handle this as soon as possible for purposes of Operational Security, recklessly charging in without all of their ducks in a row sounds like a great way to fail. And even with his do-over, this isn't the kind of situation where Lucien wants to fuck up.
As far as he could tell, even the likes of Trigon hadn't remembered what happened between them after Death saved him from Trigon's clutches and everything reset. So hopefully Darkseid wouldn't either… but it wasn't something Lucien wanted to risk either way even if a nagging voice in the back of his head said it would be impossible to finish off Darkseid without a few 'attempts' first.
Still, before anything else… Lucien has to empower the six women who will be fighting the Dark God alongside him. Blackfire, Galatea, Claire, Kara, Hippolyta, and Grail all have a session with him and a whole lot of excess biological material where Lucien uses his most basic power to bring them up to his level.
Of course, he wasn't doing so without taking precautions. Blackfire was right in that there was no reason for Lucien to risk someone like Grail or Hippolyta betraying them… so he'd gone ahead and put failsafes in those two in particular to make sure if anything of that sort DID happen, they wouldn't be able to use the immense power he'd given them for long.
Their trump card, of course, lay in Grail's biology. See, Darkseid wielded an incredibly destructive cosmic power known as the 'Omega Force'. Apparently, it was one of the universe's two primal energies, as well as being the energy of entropy, conquest, absorption, and control.
One might think they needed to go and get the opposite of this power to properly combat Darkseid… but that would be shortsighted. That was the kind of thing heroes did, fighting fire with water. But Lucien… Lucien was no hero. And fighting fire with fire could be just as good, in the end.
Put simply, as Darkseid's daughter, Grail had her own connection to the Omega Force. Her connection wasn't as strong as her father's obviously, but it did exist… and by incorporating her biology into himself and the others, it gave them all a connection to the Omega Force.
It was what allowed Grail to shoot Omega Beams… meaning that technically all seven of them now had the ability to end life in such a way that Lucien wouldn't be able to bring it back without dying and resetting himself to an earlier time period.
The more of them drawing on the Omega Force, the less of the entropic power Darkseid would have at his disposal. With seven of them all stronger than the likes of Superman, all siphoning from his power source, all aiming to kill the Dark Tyrant with all they had… well, maybe they had a chance.
They still spend a few weeks training with their new level of power before doing anything though of course. It can't be helped, the secret creation of a pocket dimension on Pluto also isn't the kind of thing that can be done in a day either.
In that time, they all grow a little bit closer… and Lucien admittedly beds every single woman aside from Hippolyta throughout this time frame, even Grail. It's just a way of blowing off steam in the end, though Lucien doesn't offer to the former Amazon Queen and she never asks.
Hearing her own gods tell her she needed to let him breed her for their purposes had clearly left Hippolyta a bit… off her game. However, having a goal in front of her to settle the debt between them had her working twice as hard as everyone else to get used to the power he'd endowed her with.
Truthfully, they probably should have spent at least a year preparing for the fight with Darkseid if Lucien was being honest. Maybe even multiple years. But time was not an infinite resource, nor was it really on their side. Despite Grail staying on the straight and narrow, the Justice League was still antsy about having her on Earth.
And Kara, while she'd been keeping their secrets for the past few weeks, had definitely not enjoyed lying to her family, friends, and comrades. Nor could she hide her new strength forever considering she was technically the most powerful member of the Justice League at this point.
All of this was to say, about two months after the events of Grail's arrival in Themyscira… the seven of them take a LexCorp teleport all the way out to Black Site Zeta and then take another teleport down to the Pocket Dimension Facility that has been built on Pluto's surface.
As they stand in front of the entrance to the pocket dimension, Lucien turns not to any of the women who will be accompanying him on this mission… but to the those who won't be.
"Is everything ready?"
One of the LexCorp scientists steps forward and nods as he clears her throat.
"Ahem. Yes Mr. Luthor. The pocket dimension is as stable as we can get it and the artificial white star is in place. All systems are green."
Perfect. That artificial white star might prove to be the difference between victory and defeat truth be told… it was the second trump card after their training with the Omega Force these past few weeks. After all, they all had the biology of Kryptonians now… and while a Yellow Star turned Kryptonians into flying, bulletproof supermen, a White Star was said to make them even stronger.
If they were already pulling out all the stops with a pocket dimension of all things, Lucien had seen no reason not to go ahead and stack the deck even more in their favor.
"Excellent. Then open it up."
The scientists do so as all six women array themselves behind him. Lucien leads the way, the seven of them all stepping through the wormhole that tears into space in front of them. A moment later and the effects of the artificial white star hit him causing Lucien to inhale sharply as power like nothing he's ever experienced before flows through his veins.
"Oh… oh that's really something~"
Grail sounds like she's almost having an orgasm even as everyone else also feels the energy of the pocket dimension's artificial star. Admittedly, this whole project had cost a pretty penny and one of the reasons they couldn't wait much longer was that someone somewhere would have eventually began to question the financials. Still, if they succeeded… it would be worth it.
No, not if. They WOULD succeed. Looking around the brightly lit pocket dimension, Lucien eyes up his girls, making sure they're all ready for battle. Each of them reacts to his gaze in their own way, from Blackfire smirking to Claire and Tea nodding, to Kara straightening up. Hippolyta just purses her lips together… while Grail grins wickedly, dancing from foot to foot.
"Give the word, boss man. We're all ready to go… I know I'm ready to go. But I ain't doing anything until you tell me to. Don't get cold feet on me now though… let's kill a God~"
Let's kill a god indeed. It was about to be kill or be killed and Lucien can't help but feel a little nervous. And yet… even beyond the six women he's brought with him, he also has Death at his back. With her at his side watching over him… he refuses to lose.
"Do it, Grail. Everyone else, get ready."
They all tense up even as Grail steps forward and spreads her arms wide, beginning to chant. In the floor of the pocket dimension before her, a massive circle of runes and script begin to form. Lucien studies them for a moment but it's nothing he can read apparently. Even being all powerful doesn't make one all knowing at the end of the day.
Then again, that's rather the hope isn't it? Darkseid is beyond powerful… but he is not omniscient. He can still be surprised. He can still be caught off guard.
The ritual circle grows and grows until it encompasses all of the ground beneath their feet. It glows a darkish red, pulsing with power as Grail's red eyes glow brighter and brighter as well. Her hands lift higher into the air by the moment… until she abruptly clenches them into fists and brings them down.
The air crackles with power. Not just any power though… this is the power of the Omega Force, a power that all seven of them have been attuned to. It grows and grows, building in pressure… and if they weren't all connected to it, Lucien is confident it would be trying to force them to their knees, to subjugate them.
Instead, it feels rather nice and somewhat warm. And then the pressure hits a crescendo and the air CRACKS as Darkseid is summoned to the center of the ritual circle.
He presses a fist and a knee to the floor, the Dark God's head bowed as he appears in all of his terrible glory. Then, he begins to rise to his feet, slowly standing to his full, imposing height.
"Daughter. You have summoned-!"
They don't wait for Darkseid to finish speaking. That was never the plan. Instead, all seven of them move at once. Lucien takes up the frontlines, so to speak. Meaning he's the one who attacks Darkseid from the front where the Dark God of Tyranny can see him coming. Eyes glowing red, teeth bared in a rictus of a grin, Lucien launches himself forward faster than the speed of light under the combined effects of the White Star and the Omega Force flowing through him.
At the same exact time, the others all attack from different angles. Each of them rushing in to catch Darkseid off-guard, aiming to slice and strike and burn him with all of their power. Lucien half-expects it to fail truth be told. This Alpha Strike of theirs… it's almost too good to be true. Surely they've made a mistake somewhere, right?
But… no. His fist lands on Darkseid's face in the same moment Hippolyta's sword cuts the Dark God's hamstrings, the same moment Blackfire's burning hands drive jabbing strikes into his kidneys, the same moment each and every one of them hits him with everything they've got.
… And Lucien feels Darkseid give way beneath his fist. He feels the flesh of the Tyrant's cheek burst and break under his knuckles. He lands his hit directly on bone and feels even that give.
"TREACHERY!"
Darkseid roars in pain and anger as they each hit him. His red eyes blaze and Omega Beams lance out far faster than Grail could ever hope to do, striking all of them in the chest and blasting them all backwards. Unlike Grail's Omega Beams, these Omega Beams actually hurt. Even with a connection to the Omega Force, even under the light of the artificial white star, they hurt.
But Lucien doesn't let that stop him no more than any of the others. They all race in again, hoping to capitalize on the damage they did to start with. Obviously the hope had been to kill Darkseid with that first series of blows… but not a single one of them, Lucien included, had actually thought it would end like that. Even with all of their preparations, assassinating Darkseid was never going to be so easy.
Baring her teeth in a feral grin, Grail slides in next to her father's leg and digs her fingers into the cut hamstrings Hippolyta has left behind for her.
"Treachery? I was never loyal, 'father'."
She spits the word father like it's the greatest insult she can muster, while dodging back as Darkseid swipes at her.
Meanwhile, the others harry him as well. Hippolyta has the most centuries of martial training of all of them and it shows in the efficiency of her movements, the way she uses her economy of motion to strike as best she can.
Blackfire, meanwhile, fights dirty as all hell, showing off a lifetime of having to play catchup despite being the eldest sibling.
Kara, Tea, Claire… all of them fight like the brawlers they are, fists and feet slamming into Darkseid's powerfully built body whenever possible. A punch from Kara to Darkseid's gut staggers him by a step. A kick from Claire to his head interrupts the Omega Beams building in his skull for a second. A double fisted punch down from Tea causes the smallest of cracks in his helmet.
Lucien acts where he can act. He inserts himself into the battle whenever it seems best… but truth be told, he's playing support more than anything. Darkseid isn't just taking all of this lying down, after all. The Dark God is fighting back and doing debilitating damage in turn. But with how fast Lucien can move right now, with how powerful he currently is… he can be at someone's side and healing them of their injuries before the pain even starts to register.
Everything is going well. Everything is going great, even. Darkseid is bleeding and while they all are too, their wounds don't last like his do.
And yet… Lucien can't help but feel like they're already on their way to a stalemate. Even with all seven of them working under the light of a white star, he's holding his own… and even starting to gain some ground against them.
Maybe it's because the white star is only artificial. Maybe it's because it's fucking Darkseid and killing him normally was never in the cards.
But something has to change before he finds a way to get the upper hand. If even one of them is killed beyond Lucien's ability to revive… then the rest of them will almost certainly fall like dominoes afterwards. And that moment… it feels like it's fast approaching to Lucien.
This needs to end. Darkseid needs to End. The only question is… does Lucien have what it takes to End him?