Overlooking the universes of the five Earths on a floating asteroid, Alex and Lyla are joined by Pariah, who asks what part the Monitor could have intended him to play in the Crisis. Lyla responds that she has been told the Monitor's plan and knows what part he'll play in the conclusion, representatives of six Earths most these plans. Pariah obliges her by taking them to the merged Earths.

On Earth-S, where everyone has been freed of Psycho-Pirate's spell, Sivana and Ibac are about to be captured by Captain Marvel when, suddenly, they fade from the Earth-S plane. Captain Marvel Jr., Tawky Tawny, Changeling, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl arrive seconds later.

In space, Brainiac has drawn Sivana and Ibac to his satellite and greets them as the latest members of a select group who will soon rule the universe. Captain Marvel and the other-Earth heroes and heroines note that the wall of anitmatter has vanished. Lyla appears nearby, explains the machinations of the Psycho-Pirate, and enlists Captain Marvel as representative of Earth-S to hear the story behind the Crisis.

On Earth-2, Yolanda Montez, the new Wildcat, stands unseen above Green Arrow, the Atom, and Liberty Belle when she overhears Atom declare that there will never be another Wildcat. Yolanda realizes that she must prove herself worthy of the name before revealing her new identity.

On Earth-4, Pariah contacts its heroes and their former opponents from Earths 1 and 2. Blue Beetle will represent his Earth to hear Pariah and Lyla's stories.

On Earth-X, the Freedom Fighters pledge to Starfire to help all they can.

All five Earths are still slowly merging. however, and time still runs riot on all of them. Finally, Lyla, Alex, and Pariah stand on the asteroid, with Lady Quark, Superman of Earth-I, Uncle Sam, Captain Marvel, Superman of Earth-2, and the Blue Beetle. The heroes want to battle, but Alex and Lyla tell them that they must know exactly what they are fighting. Now, Lyla begins her story at the beginning—ten billion years ago when Earth was little more than cooling gases, the inhabitants of Oa, at the center of the universe, were immortal and had the powers of the legendary gods, and always strove for continued advancement, but their science became perverted, for one of them, Krona, swore to discover the secret of the universe's creation. Others warned him away, vowing that legends told of destruction to come to any who plumbed the mysteries of Creation. Krona called them fools, and continued his studies. He built a time-viewer in which he observed a cosmic Hand holding the galaxies in its palm. An instant later, a bolt of energy blasted the viewscreen and his laboratory to bits. Had Krona been mortal, he too would have perished, but that would have been far better than what actually occurred. At that point, according to Lyla, the Anti-Matter Universe was formed, and the single Universe split many times into a Multiverse. All planets of the cosmos were duplicated in every universe, save for one—Oa. Oa's sole twin was in the anti-matter universe. Its name was Qward. For his cosmic crime. Krona was converted to insensible, disembodied energy, and sentenced to circle the universe forevermore. Twice he managed to assume human form again; twice again he was defeated. The Oans, feeling responsible for Krona's actions, were consumed by guilt. They had created Evil, so they must form a force to constrain it. Their first attempt to do so was the construction of Manhunter robots, which later proved defective. Their second, and better, solution was the creation of the Green Lantern Corps. Still, there were dissenters among the Oans who maintained that evil must be destroyed, not contained. These dissidents broke away from the Guardians, and evolved into the Controller race, which would one day encounter the Legion of Super-Heroes. Oa and Qward had one moon each. On the moon of Qward, the Anti-Monitor broke the surface and came to life, re

---