Absolute DC Part 2: Blood in the Water by Red-Rum-18

We return now to the undersea kingdom of Atlantis, the seat of power of an ancient race of amphibious people, the

Atlanteans. Long before their initial exile from the surface world’s graces, the Atlanteans faced off against The Trench, a more monstrous race of amphibious humanoid creatures. Though the Trench were defeated and exterminated, the Atlanteans were wary of their return. Now, centuries later, the Atlanteans had grown lax and forgot about the Trench, thinking they would never resurface… they were wrong. Atlan Orin Marius, the King of Atlantis and the superhero known as the Aquaman, on the eve of his wedding to his beloved Lady Mera Dethalis, received a death threat in the Trench’s ancient tongue, foreshadowing the fall of Atlantis. It seems that their ceremony would have to be delayed until the potential crisis is resolved. A few hours ago, a Trench school had swarmed and attacked the penal colony of Xebel, resulting in the death of dozens of guards and prisoners and a mass breakout of the surviving convicts. Orin and Mera, with a large platoon of soldiers at their command, arrived to contain the breakout and kill the Trench assailants. In the end, the breakout was quelled, but two of their major enemies, Manta and Siren, were unaccounted for…

Shortly later, at the royal palace of Atlantis, Orin and Mera were planning their next move against the Trench when Siren, who is Mera’s elder sister Hila Dethalis, arrived at the palace critically injured by the Trench. For two days, Hila was cared for by Mera while there was no Trench activity reported to Orin. While Hila was in a non-stable condition, and while Xebel was still under re-construction, Hila wasn’t leaving the palace. After a week with Hila under the Royals’ custody, the Atlanteans discovered the location of the Trench’s central hive and launched an assault on it, exterminating a majority of them and destroyed their seat of power. With Atlantis and her interests safe, the wedding ceremony was announced to be back on by Orin and Mera. Hila seemed to have been rehabilitated under Mera’s care, and was made Maid of Honor (or, rather, the Atlantean equivalent) for the ceremony. When the ceremony was finally underway, and the King and Future Queen were named Man and Wife by the officiate, the remaining Trench launched a counter-offensive at the reception. Battling the the Trench, Orin was stabbed in the back by Mera, who whispered in his ear that she had been working with the Trench the whole time, which is how they survived the Atlantean assault on their central hive. With the King mortally wounded, Hila escaped in the panic but was pursued by her sister. Mera and Hila battled to a standstill, until the latter’s stomach burst like a balloon and hundreds of piranha-like Trench larvae attacked Mera. King Orin, still wounded, discovered his wife crucially injured by the Trenchlings and her sister dead. The Trench is gone, for now, but Queen Mera is now in a vegetative state, with a small chance of awakening. After the madness ended, Orin pulled out the Will and Testament that he and Mera drew up together before the wedding, revealing that she had her eggs cryogenically frozen and awaiting a surrogate mother so that Orin can still have a child with Mera if something were to happen to her...

Notes:

* The Trench is relatively unchanged from their appearance in the original comics, but I added a few visual distinctions of my own.

* Manta is still missing from the jailbreak that the Trench caused…