WARNING: The following contains spoilers from "Future State: Justice League Dark: Propheties Part 2" in Future State: Justice League #2 by Ram V., Marcio Takara, Marcelo Maiolo, and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
In Future State: Justice League, the Justice League Dark back-up story has thrown the supernatural heroes to the wolves. In a future where Merlin has torn the world asunder, the team is in a state of disarray with barely anyone left to fight back. Zatanna, Constantine, Ragman and Detective Chimp/Etrigan are the only heroes remaining, but thankfully, they've been buoyed by the return of their most powerful hero, Khalid Nassour/Dr. Fate.
And as the team's Future State adventures come to an end, Fate makes a big play by borrowing some Dr. Strange's best moves from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to save his friends and this particular reality.
In Las Vegas, the Justice League Dark team's being pummelled by Enchantress, one of Merlin's key knights. Luckily, Etrigan's finally broken his covenant and started attacking the enemies, since he thinks Merlin extracted and killed Jason Blood. However, it turns out that Jason is a knight as well, impaling the demon and getting ready to behead him.
It's a disappointing end as Zatanna's team really did fight hard, but they're overpowered. But just as Jason brings his sword down, Fate jumps in, blocks it and pulls out a move straight from Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme. He wants to bargain with Merlin, which is the ace in the hole Strange used to trap Dormammu in a time loop in 2016's Doctor Strange. Except here, Fate's plan is a bit more straightforward.
Khalid knows Merlin wants the helmet to see the future, but Merlin can't control it since he wasn't chosen. Thus, Khalid offers to be his oracle, harnessing clairvoyance and guiding the wizard, hopefully towards a better and peaceful life. Merlin buys into the idea since it's something he always wanted, calling his troops off and heading back through a rift.
While Etrigan and the Dark team lament Khalid's fate, he's glad he's giving his life for theirs, and it's because he's seen multiple futures. He even tells Etrigan that he can help keep this world from coming to pass by influencing his modern-day self. When he visited Nabu's lair months before, Hauhet, another god, showed him all the possible futures he could think of and this informed all of his actions up until now. It's why he hid and then came out, as it was all part of his plan.
While victory doesn't seem possible in this timeline, Fate can at least save his colleagues and urge Etrigan to keep it from happening in the first place. It's similar to Strange using the Time Stone to see millions of possibilities before making a sacrifice that would take his life as well. That was the only way to put the heroes on a path to victory, and Khalid follows the same methodology here, except this time he's resigned to being Merlin's lackey to keep his buddies alive in a world they've already lost to magical darkness.