Chapter Ten:

Discord

 

Clark was late.

 

As Superman, he was able to move fast than a speeding bullet, able to crisscross the globe in a matter of minutes to attend one crisis after another. Secretly, he had to admit that there were few things in life that could compare with streaking across the sky, unfettered by limitations of gravity. Once he had even chased a shooting star through the night, following its trajectory to ensure that it did not land anywhere inconvenient, like a city. The sensation was exhilarating and heady and during those moments, Clark was more at peace with who he was than at any other time in his life.

 

However as Clark Kent, there just wasn’t enough hours in the day.

 

After dealing with a mining accident in Virginia, Clark had rushed back to Metropolis in the hopes of giving Lois some assistance with the piece they were doing together when a massive tenement fire in downtown Chicago caught his attention and he was diverted there. There was no question or for that matter even hesitation that he should leave this to the local authorities but as reporter, he had seen just how catastrophic these things could be. All those bodies trapped in dungeon like apartments in ten storey prisons, it was not enough to assume that fire fighters could manage. Like the people they were trying to save, they were human too.

 

Superman had made a timely arrival, extinguishing the fire with his super breath as Lois had dubbed it in some of her Superman articles (where did she come up with these names?) and blowing away the noxious smoke into the upper atmosphere. He then resumed his journey to Metropolis, confident that the fire fighters would be able to deal with the rest.

 

Heading home, more specifically the Daily Planet, Superman took the familiar route to the building rooftop where he was able to change back into Clark Kent. His frequent trips to the rooftop had given the impression that he smoked and though Clark couldn’t imagine polluting his body with that vice, it served a purpose and he made no attempt to deny it. Within minutes, he was stepping through the door of the fire stairs onto the floor where the newsroom waited.

 

Lois was at her desk, legs crossed, tapping her pencil against her keyboard, her eyes fixed in his direction. An internal alarm sounded in his head because her expression didn’t seem to change when she saw him and he couldn’t read that particular look. Klaxons were screaming in his head in readiness to go to battle mode because this was Lois with something on her mind and it didn’t look good. Thinking furiously, Clark ran a checklist of things he might have forgotten. Nope, it wasn’t an anniversary. It couldn’t be Diana, he hadn’t seen her today and last he recalled, he had put the toilet seat down before he left Lois’ apartment this morning.

 

Clark took his customary seat at his desk and asked cautiously. “Lois is something wrong?”

 

“Wrong?” She said fairly fuming. “What could be wrong?” She retorted, dropping her pencil on the desk and proceeded to tidy it up, sweeping a crumpled piece of tissue and an apple core into the waste paper basket as she talked.

 

“Well, you …”

 

“I mean, so we were supposed to work on this article together,” she bit back before he had a chance to finish the sentence. “But so far, I’m working it all on my own. You know that I needed your notes to finish it and here you are, so busy with your extra curricular activities that you completely bailed on me! Just because we’re sleeping together doesn’t mean you get to slack off Rookie!”

 

Woah.

 

“Uh Lois,” Clark stood up and stared at her with disbelief, wondering what the hell had come over her. “Let’s take this outside. ”

 

“I don’t need to take this outside Smallville!” She shouted indignantly, almost hysterical in fact.

 

Clark looked around to see if anyone else was listening to this, they had to be. Something had to be wrong with Lois. No matter how angry she became, there was always some measure of restraint whenever it came to his secret. Lois knew how important it was to both their lives and she was practised at it by now, even with a five year hiatus. She wouldn’t just blurt it out like that unless something was very wrong.

 

Clark looked around hastily to see was listening and suddenly noticed that no one was paying any attention.

 

At all.

 

What he normally attributed to the frenzy of the newsroom took a decidedly ominous shape when he saw the other people in the room were in an increasingly agitated state. Listening closely, he could hear the rising cadence of multiple heartbeats to correspond by the loud conversations being hurled across the room like artillery fire. Whether it was talking on the phone, addressing each other or even working, the reporters of the news floor looked like they were ready to climb the walls. Glancing at Perry’s office, he spied Jimmy learning across the desk of their cigar chomping Editor in Chief with challenge in his stance.

 

“….in Bosnia and Iraq! I’m not just some mascot! I’m a photo-journalist and I want some goddamn respect!”

 

Hell, Clark sucked in his breath almost afraid to look at Perry to see what reaction that statement was going to engender when Lois’ angry voice barked at him.

 

“Smallville! Pay attention when I’m talking to you!”

 

“Trouble in paradise?” Catherine Grant, gossip columnist extraordinaire and society page scribe, smirked snidely as she drifted past Lois and came to a stop next to Clark.

 

As always, Cat wore her sexuality like a neon sign and had no use for subtlety. Clad in something that was far too tight and left little to the imagination, she was a stark contrast to Lois who was wearing a smartly cut suit and silk shirt. Taking another bite of the apple in her hand, she coiled her hand over his shoulder and gave him a look that was filled with invitation.

 

“You know Clark,” Cat leaned her face closer to his, “if Lane here is too much of a cold fish to treat you right, I can always oblige.”

 

He so did not need this right now, Clark thought inwardly. After finally calming Lois down about his relationship with Diana, Clark did not need the added fuel from Cat too, especially when Lois seemed to be on a tear.

 

“Cat,” Lois tapped the blond on her shoulder, stepping in with a sweet (and dangerous) smile on her face.

 

Cat Grant had just enough time to turn her head towards Lois when a fist flashed past Clark and struck the woman on the face with enough force to send her flying backwards into a desk and then over it. Cat slid across the desk, taking with her everything on it.

 

“LOIS!” Clark shouted.

 

Lois wasn’t listening. She was already clambering over the desk after Cat. “This is what you get for messing with my boyfriend!”

 

If this wasn’t unfolding in front of his eyes involving his normally rational lover, Clark Kent would have almost found this funny. However, there was real murder in Lois’ eyes and Clark knew that if Lois felt the need she could do some serious damage. Lois’ impressive combat ability came from her general father who was of the impression that there was nothing he couldn’t teach a daughter that he couldn’t teach a son. Clark strongly suspected that the only combat Cat had ever seen was fighting for a pair of Italian pumps at a sale.

 

This time the commotion did attract attention and naturally it was all bad as Clark hurried after Lois and grabbed her before she had a chance to pounce on the dazed gossip columnist. A few of the male reporters had come to watch the fight and Clark swore he heard someone shout ‘catfight’.

 

“Lois, come on,” he picked her up by the waist and hauled her over the desk, away from Cat. “Calm down!”

 

“Let me go Smallville!” she struggled indignantly. “Its time people know that you are mine! I’m sick of everyone and her dog thinking that you’re ripe to get their hooks into!” She jabbed him in the chest.

 

“Lois this is crazy!” Clark took her by the hand, prepared to drag her off the floor if he had to. “We’ve got a situation here and I don’t have time to deal with this!”

 

“BITCH!” Cat screeched all of a sudden and flung herself at Lois.

 

This time they both went down and suddenly people were cheering them on as the two women rolled around on the floor, their skirts bunching up as they fought like they were in the scrum. Clark made his way to them about to pull both women apart when someone shouted at him.

 

“Hey Kent, stay out of it!”

 

Clark recognised the voice belonging to Steve Lombardi, the Planet’s sport writer who considered himself something of a ladies man and was one of those guys to which the term ‘hound’ could be aptly applied.

 

“Steve, something is wrong with them!” Clark ignored the man’s voice and leaned over to get Lois when the man grabbed him by the shoulder and threw a punch.

 

The blow did more damage to Steve who uttered a groan of pain as he clutched his probably broken hand, as he staggered away in agony. Suddenly the already incendiary situation ignited further out of control. Steve’s act of violence swept through the rest of the floor like an inferno. Colleagues who had known each other for years began throwing punches and hurling furniture. Clark watched the proceedings with disbelief, trying to understand what was the cause of all this.

 

However, first things first, he thought looking for Lois.

 

The ace reporter of the Daily Planet was at present in a stapler, hole punch exchange with Cat as the two women had graduated from rolling around the floor (no doubt giving most of their male colleagues fodders for amusement for the next decade) to hurling objects at each other. Using his super speed, he moved through the room faster than the eye could detect and grabbed Lois just as a keyboard was thrown at her. It ended hitting Lombardi in the head and bringing the former football star down faster than a 300 pound line backer.

 

In seconds Clark was in the closet with Lois.

 

“Lois stay here,” he ordered and knew that would have as much impact as spitting in the wind but he had to give it a shot nevertheless.

 

“Smallville,” she looked at him, the fight in her seemingly dissipated for the moment. “I don’t feel so good.”

 

Clark was about to switch costumes and blow out of there when he stopped short and looked at her. “What?”

 

She didn’t look well. Her skin appeared flushed which Clark had initially attributed to her exertions with Cat but now he could see it was more than that. Her skin wasn’t just flushed, he realised when he touched her forehead. She was burning up and slowly descending delirium.

 

“Lois,” he questioned her, “can you remember when you started feeling like this?” While it was a somewhat forgone conclusion that this had been caused by something, Clark needed answers to put a stop to this before it spread beyond the Daily Planet pool of reporters.

 

“I don’t know,” she shook her head as her legs started to give up on her and Clark caught her before she hit the floor. “After that fruit delivery maybe….” She muttered.

 

“Fruit delivery?” Clark raised a brow. Coffee was a staple yes. Bagels an essential but fruit? That was unusual.

 

“Yeah,” she nodded as he gently lowered her to the floor, “nice red ones from … from… Queen Hippolyta as a thank you for all the nice press we’ve been giving her and Diana.”

 

“Apples,” Clark frowned, “poetic.” Looking back at Lois, he kissed her gently on the forehead and spoke, “Lois, I’ll be back soon. Stay here.”

 

Changing into the suit, Superman stepped out of the closet, leaving Clark Kent behind. He turned to the door and melted the knob with his heat vision, ensuring that Lois didn’t leave without help. Speeding back to the newsroom, he saw Cat being ganged up one or two of the apprentices, about to be brained by a handbag and a photograph frame. He disarmed them before any real damage could be done when a shatter of glass and someone’s scream had him streaking through the room and out the window. Superman caught Joe the copy editor as he plunged past floor thirty on a hard collision course with the sidewalk outside the Daily Planet’s main entrance.

 

“Superman,” Joe remarked, somewhat dazed. “What are you doing here?”

 

Like Lois, his temperature was rising and he was starting to lose consciousness. What was happening to them? Clark wondered with increasing fear as he returned Joe to the bullpen.

 

Upon returning, Clark discovered that while the fighting continued in its frenzied state, it was starting to lose steam as more and more people faltered, leaving them at the mercy of those who hadn’t. Through the wall of his office, Clark saw Jimmy and Perry choking each other over the chief’s desk. Zipping through the office, causing papers and objects to be blown away in the wake of his trail, Clark arrived in time to stop Jimmy from throttling Perry with what looked to be a mounted sturgeon.

 

“Put that fish down OLSEN!”

 

“Make me!”

 

“Enough you two!” Superman pulled both men apart and sat Jimmy down in the metal chair across from Perry’s desk, bending the steel around the younger man to ensure he didn’t try and cause any further harm before doing the same to Perry. Both men started to curse at him indignantly, acquiring an odd sort of solidarity in their outrage. Stepping out of Perry’s office, Clark decided that he was done trying to pull people apart one by one, he needed a faster solution.

 

Lifting his gaze to the sprinkle nozzles spaced intermittently across the ceiling, Clark let loose a light blast of heat vision, not enough to damage the devices but activate their sensors. Water burst forth across the newsroom floor, unleashing a heavy spray of water over everyone. The sudden soaking distracted people enough to snap out of their violent rage and across the room, Clark saw some semblance of reason return to the faces of the people he worked with and called friends.

 

What satisfaction Clark could derive from this action was brief. It seemed that the malaise that gripped Lois was spreading through the rest of the Daily Planet cadre of reporters now that they were no longer focussed on aggression. People started dropping around him like flies, weakened and clearly afflicted. Amidst the blood and bruises, something more sinister was taking place and Clark was faced with the one thing his great powers could never prevent.

 

Sickness.

 

“Superman!”

 

Clark turned around and saw Bruce and Diana at the window. Eyes widening in surprise because neither were in costume and their civilian clothes were torn and bloodied, Clark realised he wasn’t the only one with an eventful evening. Bruce climbed through the window first and wiped the water out of his eyes as he approached.

 

“Bruce…you’re…”

 

“Long story,” Bruce said shortly, throwing Diana a glance. “What’s happened here?”

 

“I don’t know,” Clark answered shaking his head as Diana went up to Lombardi who was lying flat across the table, disorientated. “I came back to everyone tearing at each other. Lois said that they got a delivery of apples from Hippolyta.”

 

Diana straightened up and stared sharply at him. “Apples?”

 

“Damn,” Bruce sucked in his breath and looked at her. “Is that who I think it is? Eris?”

 

“Eris?” Clark asked, feeling like he walked in mid act. “Who or what is an Eris?”

 

“If I remember my mythology, Eris was the goddess of discord. When she was left off the guest list for the wedding of the Thetis, she threw a golden apple in the middle of the feast and said it was to go to the fairest. Naturally this sparked an argument among the goddesses as to who should have it which led to the Judgement of Paris and eventually the destruction of Troy in the Trojan War.”

 

“And you think these apples were sent by Eris?” Clark exclaimed, still having wrapping his mind around the fact that the Daily Planet had been attacked by a Greek goddess.

 

“Clark, I just spent the evening trying to avoid a gorgon while Diana was fighting a cyclops in downtown Gotham, I think its safe to say that this is within the realm of possibility.”

 

“These people need Menalippe’s healing immediately,” Diana joined the conversation, a grim expression on her face. “They have been poisoned. Nothing in your science can stop what ails them. We need Amazon healing.” Pausing, she looked at both men. “And yes, this is the work of Eris. She does her father’s bidding.”

 

“Her father?” Clark asked.

 

“Yes,” Diana nodded. “Eris is the child of the war god, Ares.”

 

***********

 

 

How could she do this to him?

 

General Steven Hayes sat in his car after leaving Elizabeth’s, tears running down his face as he recalled in terrible detail everything he had heard when he stood outside her bedroom door. After arriving unexpectedly with roses and wine, he had hoped to give her a romantic surprise. Instead, he was the only one surprised when it appeared Elizabeth wasn’t alone.

 

Had it only been a few months ago that he was a happily married man with a wife who loved and children he adored. However, when Elizabeth had entered his life, nothing else seemed to matter, not the life he had built himself with a woman had endured much being an army wife, not the children she had given. None of it seemed important in the face of Elizabeth. She had shown him how empty his existence was, how passionless it had become. Younger and certainly more beautiful, his need for Elizabeth was like a fever and his every thought became filled with possessing her.

 

Elizabeth had accepted him into her bed and he thought, her heart. She had furnished with kisses and pleasure within the heated confines of the apartment he was paying to house her. He came and went as he pleased, making up one excuse after another so he could escape into her arms at every opportunity. It was as if they were meant for each other and everything else before this had been some vague dream that diminished with each moment he spent in her company.

 

But all that ended today.

 

Today he had entered the apartment and found her in the bedroom in deep conversation with someone who remained anonymous through the telephone. He had opened his mouth to announce himself when suddenly, Elizabeth who claimed to be from North Dakota, who had never travelled anywhere, began to speak in Chinese. Steven, who spent some years in overseas assignments in the Orient, was fluent enough in the language, which in this case was perfect Mandarin, to understand everything she was saying. He listened with growing horror and despair, as the words impacted upon his psyche like blows from a hammer.

 

"Yes, it is safe to talk."

 

"No, I still haven’t got access to the information at the base."

 

"He will trust me soon enough, be patient."

 

"I am no happier by this than the People’s Army. I don’t care how much I’m being paid, you don’t have to sleep with him."

 

He listened in stunned silence and drifted out of the apartment without giving away his presence. He reached the car across the street without being aware of anything but this growing black pit of pain that was widening inside his heart. As a man in his position, he was aware that enemy agents could attempt to infiltrate his live. It was the nature of the arm’s race, even if its prominence had slipped from notice in recent years and most of the general public believed that there was no longer any competition between the superpowers. However, Hayes had thought himself able of spot an impostor or at the very least, be expert enough to notice a plant in his life.

 

How could she do this to him? Didn’t she know he loved her? Was everything she had said to him, about the lives they would share together, the places they would see, was it all a lie? He knew the answer to that even as his ravaged heart brayed the question. Of course it was, his inner voice said cynically. She is a Chinese agent, bought and paid for to be whore to you so that you would give her access to everything at the base. Think of it, a few months more after he had divorced Renee, he would have married Elizabeth and she would have become his wife, able to come and go as she pleased.

 

All this time, she was just playing him.

 

The Chinese, he snorted disgustingly. They haven’t changed since Nam`. Always lurking in the background, giving aid and support to the Cong even though they had no claim to the country. Providing the enemy with arms, trying to keep their names out of it, lacking the decency to come out and voice their opposition, unlike the Russians. He hated them. He hated them and their ways. He hated them for using him and for making him love Elizabeth and most of all he hated the disgust in her voice when she said she was the one who was sleeping with him.

 

He wished them dead. All of them. They shouldn’t be able to do this to people. Shouldn’t be able to tear out a man’s heart for the sake of information. They had no right. People like that had no right to anything, no right to breathe the air as everyone else. He wanted to hurt them, wanted to make them know this pain and this shame. He wanted Elizabeth to burn in agony for what she did to him even though killing was too good for her.

 

Killing was too good for her.

 

She needed to know that she could not play with people’s emotions, that there were consequences for her actions, no matter who her masters were. Suddenly it hit him that he had the perfect way to show Elizabeth what she had done to him, a way to show the world, not just the f**king Chinese but everyone.

 

He stared at the signet ring on his finger, the one she had given to him as a present, feeling it burn into his skin, a mockery to all that she had professed to feel for him and knew exactly how he would make her pay. Those Chinese wanted to know about American missiles? He would give them a closer look than they possible imagined.

 

With love, from Elizabeth.

 

 

Chapter Eleven:

Identity

 

Upon realising that this was the work of Eris, Diana had returned to Gotham with Bruce, depositing him at his manor so he could change into something more appropriate, she went to find Menalippe. Aside from being the Amazon High Priestess, Menalippe was the best healer among them. She returned with Menalippe to the hospital in Metropolis where Lois and the rest of the inflicted Daily Planet news team were currently being treated.

 

Leaving Menalippe to confer with the initially sceptical physicians, Diana was about to go in search of Kal when the front lobby of Metropolis General Hospital was disrupted by the snapping of light bulbs and gasps and cries of surprised onlookers.

 

“Is that him?”

 

“I thought he didn’t exist!”

 

“I thought Gotham was making him up!”

 

Diana was accustomed to engendering such reactions since her arrival into the Patriarch’s World but Bruce’s appearance at the hospital engendered even more shock. People stared open mouth as he swept past, a dark god dragging a black cape that seemed to suck all the light out of a room. So different to Kal, she thought as he approached her, yet no less awe-inspiring. People tended to swarm around Kal but with Bruce, they withdrew as if he were a force of nature to be viewed from minimum safe distance. Superman engendered hope and courage, Batman only struck fear into people’s hearts.

 

Then again, she supposed that was rather the point, wasn’t it?

 

“I am surprised to see you here,” Diana declared as he came to a pause, looking over his shoulder at the people staring at them in surprise. “I am told you prefer the shadows.”

 

“I do,” Bruce said abruptly, not pausing to greet her but expecting Diana to follow, “however, the situation is escalating and we need to deal with it fast. We don’t have time for the niceties.”

 

“I agree,” Diana nodded falling into stride with him as they entered a staircase “these attacks upon all of us only show the war god’s determination to distract us. Although this attack upon Miss Lane and her companions puzzles me, I would have imagined a more direct assault upon Kal since he is the strongest of us.”

 

“Strongest perhaps,” Bruce said quietly as they reached the top, “but also the most vulnerable.”

 

“I do not understand,” she threw a sidelong glance at him, her brow furrowing in concern and wanting a clearer answer when they arrived on the floor where Lois and the Daily Planet news room were being kept.

 

The nurse behind the desk stared open mouthed at them.

 

“Lois Lane.” The Batman said simply.

 

“Uh…uh….Ward C.” She stuttered after a moment, eyes still wide.

 

Bruce didn’t wait for any further information, suspecting he would only be greeted with gibberish and gestured at Diana to follow him. He had memorized the internal layout of the hospital anyway. Doctors, orderlies, other patients, all stepped aside for the colourful duo, the personification of dark and light moving through the hall in cloaks of black and bracelets of gold. Diana wanted to ask Bruce what he meant by that statement when they reached the doors to Ward C and paused.

 

Bruce did not enter the room but he nodded ahead, directing Diana to look. When she saw what he intended her to witness, then only did Diana understand why Kal was the most vulnerable among them.

 

Because he had the most to lose.

 

 

**********

 

They let him see her after they had finished their examination, when she was nestled comfortably in her bed, one of a dozen in the same ward. He supposed if he pushed the point, he could have gotten her a private room but Clark Kent knew his Lois, she would want to be like everyone else. The poison, so ironically, introduced by an apple, was ravaging all their bodies, Perry, Cat, Steve, Jimmy and Lois. So there he stood beside her bed, while the others continued to be fussed over by doctors who did not have the slightest clue how to help.

 

He was still in the suit, an odd sight of colour in a place that was drab and sterile white. No one dared approach. Even Superman deserved privacy.

 

Clark Kent stared at Lois’ face deathly pale from the poison had tainted her body and never weaker in his entire existence. He reached through the rails of her bed to clasp her unmoving hand, squeezing it gently, discovering that seeing her so frail could do him more harm than a kryptonite bullet.

 

“Lois,” he pleaded softly, “you need to wake up. I can’t do this without you.”

 

And it was true, he couldn’t.

 

Alien threats, kryptonian villains and meteor freaks, none of it seemed as daunting of going through life without her. All his life Clark had searched for her, not realising he didn’t have far to look, he just needed to open his eyes to realise what was always there. He thought about her fears about Diana and wondered how she didn’t know it was absurd. Didn’t Lois know that once she won his heart, there could never be anyone else?

 

Where Lana had wanted to be his equal, Lois had just wanted him.

 

How could she not how much he cherished the simple joy of looking into her eyes and knowing she saw him, not Kal-El from Krypton, not some superhuman capable of outrunning a bullet but just him, Clark Kent. Her Smallville.

 

She had entered his life as an annoyance and somehow become his friend until one day, almost unconsciously, she had become his reason for being. Clark never knew how it happened. All he knew was that the strength of her character had made him a better man and the love she gave was the acceptance he always wanted.

 

Five years ago, Clark had walked away from Lois and almost destroyed himself. Neither of them could accept the loss and though she was wounded by his absence, her love redeemed them both when he returned. All her fears about Diana and she never saw how precious that second chance was to him. Superman could fight a thousand battles but if all he had with Lois Lane was one lifetime, he could live on that forever.

 

“I will find a way to help you,” he squeezed her hand again and leaned forward, planting a soft kiss on her lips. “I promise.”

 

**********

 

Diana watched the exchange in wonder.

 

Kal’s emotions were naked on his face. She knew the concept of love between men and women but she had not seen it expressed so clearly until this moment. On Themiscyra, the Amazon view of men and women were understandably biased after her sisters’ treatment by the likes of Heracles and his brutal companions. However, since coming to the Patriarch’s World and interacting with men, Diana at last saw the original plan intended by the gods when creating the two genders.

 

“He loves her.” Diana spoke, her voice filled with awe and fascination, as if she were seeing something miraculous and beautiful unfold.

 

Bruce cast a sidelong glance at her, “yes, he does.”

 

“You knew?” She glanced at him briefly before resuming her observation of Kal and Miss Lane.

 

“Yes,” Bruce nodded, “if they want to hurt him, she’s the most effective way.”

 

“It is beneath our enemies to attack in such a way,” Diana declared hotly, “She is an innocent in all this.”

 

“There are no innocents in war Princess,” Bruce said firmly. “You know that.”

 

Diana nodded grimly, “I do. If it is within Menalippe’s power to help Miss Lane, she will.” Diana turned to Bruce and said firmly. “And if I have to storm Ares’ Acropolis to find a cure, I will do so. They will not be parted.”

 

Beneath the cowl, he raised a brow. “I had no idea you were such a romantic Princess.”

 

“You do not know everything about me…Batman,” she stopped herself from calling him Bruce. This business of identities was annoying but seeing how Kal’s love for Lois Lane had made her a target for his enemies, she could well understand it.

 

Sensing a little dig at his expense, Bruce knew they were well past arguing about that in light of what they were facing now. “That is true,” he agreed. “I could have handled things better.”

 

Neither of them had addressed the discovery of his identity following their departure from the Daily Planet. However, it seemed a trivial matter in the face of what was happening around them. People were dying and the world was tumbling towards Ares’ deadly endgame. After that, her bruised feelings and his rather conflicted emotions seemed unimportant against the greater scheme of things

 

She turned and looked at him, remarking with a faint smile. “The truth exists between us now,” Diana found herself saying. “Let’s us build on that and not the mistakes made earlier. He,” Diana glanced towards Kal, “needs us now.”

 

“Right,” Bruce said simply, adding nothing further to her comment but everything she said would be filed away for consideration later. They would need to talk but as she said, this was not the time.

 

Aware that Clark would hear him, the Batman spoke quietly “Superman, we need you.”

 

************

 

On the rooftop of the hospital a few minutes later, Clark joined Bruce and Diana who were waiting for him. He left Lois reluctantly but knew that the best way to help her was to find Eris and he could only do that if he helped Diana against the threat of Ares. He didn’t know if these gods were really what Diana said they were, omnipotent beings playing dice with their lives but he was done being anyone’s pawn.

 

“How is Lois?” Bruce asked.

 

“You don’t know?” Clark retorted snidely.

 

Bruce didn’t take offence at his friend’s anger, knowing the place it was stemming from. “I didn’t have time to find out. I left Gotham almost soon after I returned. What is her condition?”

 

Bruce didn’t ask if Lois was all right or not, clearly Clark’s biting response indicated she was far from that.

 

Clark felt slightly ashamed at his unseemly comment and forced himself to say the words he couldn’t bring himself to utter. “She’s in a coma. They all are. Its some form of encephalitis the doctors never seen before. It’s attacking their neural functions. If they don’t find some way to stop it, Lois and the others will have days at most.”

 

Turning to Diana, he demanded vehemently, “do you have any idea what kind of poison this Eris was using? Those apples were supposed to be a gift from your mother. Is there anything she knows about any of this?” He hadn’t meant to sound so harsh but watching helplessly while Lois’ life was in danger was not something he could endure with any kind of calm.

 

“Superman...” Bruce stepped between them, “this isn’t Diana’s fault.”

 

“I know that!” Clark snapped and then let out a breath. “I know,” he said in a calmer voice. “I’m sorry Diana.”

 

Diana would have spoken up for herself but found it interesting that Bruce had chosen to speak on her behalf after being so disagreeable in his ‘Batman’ persona.’ His manner towards her had softened and though he sounded just as abrupt as he often did, Diana noticed he was more relaxed around her as well. Curious.

 

“I am sorry for what has been done to Miss Lane, Kal,” Diana apologised sincerely, “I brought Menalippe here so she can provide aid your friends. She is our finest healer, you could not entrust Lois to anyone better and if she cannot help, I will lead the charge to Eris herself, to save Miss Lane. I promise you Kal.”

 

“Thank you Diana,” Clark nodded, grateful for that bit of assurance. Furthermore, he wasn’t quite brave enough to contradict the determined expression on her face. He had no doubt that Diana was good as her word, her actions until now had proven nothing but that.

 

“So Ares came after all of us tonight?” He asked running his finger’s through his hair, shifting his thoughts away from worries about Lois to their situation. “He must be worried about us interfering with his plans to tip his hand like that.”

 

“I think so and he wasn’t afraid of being seen either,” Bruce wasted no time getting back to business now that Clark had made the move himself. “The Decay creature at the museum and what he sent after Diana and 1 were very public. A real life Cyclops and gorgon is bound to make people sit up and notice.”

 

“No kidding,” Clark replied automatically. “The footage of Diana’s fight with the Cyclops was all over WGBS news and he know our secret identities as well?”

 

“I’m afraid so,” Bruce agreed unhappily, chaffing on that most of all, “Euryale knew exactly who I was. I imagine targeting Lois and the Daily Planet was similarly strategic.”

 

“So it is was a secret that Kal and Miss Lane were lovers?” Diana asked, looking to the two men for confirmation.

 

Startled by her pronouncement, Clark stuttered a response. “Well no…not exactly, I mean we haven’t sort been forward about that sort of thing,” Clark noted Bruce trying not to look bemused. Bruce always seemed to find it entertaining when Clark was stumbling over his Midwestern propriety. Composing himself, Clark answered after a moment. “Its generally known that I care for Lois but this attack wasn’t just on her, it was also on the other people at the Daily Planet, people I care for and…” he paused abruptly, trying to decide if he should say more to Diana because do to so would be exposing his identity.

 

Could he trust Diana?

 

Clark’s instincts said yes. With the same gut feeling that told him he could trust Bruce, Clark wondered if he could take a leap of faith to trust Diana. Since he met her, they had shared a kinship, not just in power but also in their same idealistic belief that good existed in all people. Sometimes, Diana appeared as if she could have been grown in the Kent household. They were so like alike it was almost comforting. Furthermore, Bruce didn’t seem at all upset that Diana knew his secret, although with Bruce it was hard to say what the man really thought. Of course, Clark had suspicions about the true extent of Bruce’s feelings towards the Amazon Princess but that was a discussion for another time.

 

Right now, he had a decision to make.

 

Throwing a sidelong glance at Bruce, who made no effort to offer him guidance, perhaps wishing this decision to be Clark’s and Clark’s alone, he resumed speaking. “People, I care for and work with everyday.” He concluded.

 

“You are employed at the Daily Planet?” Diana exclaimed, aware that Kal often had to leave her to attend to other errands. She assumed it was because of Superman’s obligations to the Patriarch’s world not because he had another existence, far removed from that of planetary saviour.

 

“That’s right,” Clark nodded. “My name is Clark Kent, investigative journalist at the Daily Planet.”

 

“Lois Lane’s side kick,” Batman retorted.

 

“Partner, ” Clark corrected, throwing the cowled avenger a scathing look.

 

Another man with a secret, Diana frowned unhappily. “Do none of you speak the truth?” Diana exclaimed. “First, he is Bruce Wayne and now you are Clark Kent? I thought your name was Kal!” She complained imperiously.

 

“It is Kal,” Clark corrected her quickly, “that’s my Kryptonian name. Its necessary for me to have a private life Diana,” he explained and wondered if Bruce had bothered to do the same. Knowing Bruce, probably not. “Just as it is for Bruce. We have people in our lives who are vulnerable to the enemies we make as Superman and Batman. It is not done to deceive but to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”

 

Diana guessed as much before he explained but it was still no less frustrating. “Seeing how Eris used Miss Lane and your friends at the Daily Planet to harm you, I cannot fault your reasoning…Kal, Clark…what do you wish to be called?” She asked, irritated by the whole concept, even more so because there was a good reason for it.

 

Surprising himself, Clark replied, “I’d like you to call me Kal, Diana. For some reason, it doesn’t sound odd when you say it.”

 

There was real affection and trust as he said those words and Diana felt her anger lessen somewhat. He was giving her his trust, believing she was a person of honour and that meant something to Diana. She had not discovered the truth about him accidentally. What she knew now, was given to her freely. His faith in her made Diana feel privileged and she knew she would never betray it.

 

“Thank you Kal, I am honoured and I thank you for your trust. Your secret is safe with me. You have my word as an Amazon that I will never compromise it.”

 

“I know Diana,” Clark answered, always feeling good whenever he could be himself around the people he cared about without needing to lie.

 

Almost a second thought in her head and with certainly felt with less affection, she glanced at Bruce and added, “As is yours.” She said begrudgingly.

 

Not about to get into another debate about trust, particularly when they had bigger concerns on their mind, Bruce ignored the comment and moved past their personal issues to their immediate situation. “I think we need to take a more direct approach in dealing with this war god Diana. You said the Harmonia’s talisman is needed to find Ares, is that right?”

 

“Yes,” Diana nodded, forgetting her conflicted emotions about the man behind the cowl for now. “The talisman is vital to finding out his plans.”

 

“What is the exact wording of this prophecy?”

 

“You mean the original text?” Clark asked, trying to see what Bruce was getting at.

 

“There is not text,” she replied, wondering where he was going with this. “Menalippe received the prophecy in her dreams. The gods spoke to her through the realm of Morpheus. They said that….” She paused to remember the words spoken by the High Priestess in her telling of the prophecy to Diana before they left Themiscyra.

 

“To stand at the precipice of Days End, Harmonia’s half must be joined as one.” She recited.

 

”Okay,” Bruce took in her words. “I think I can work with that.”

 

“You can with that?” Clark stared at him with astonishment, wondering what hat trick Bruce was about to carry out with such vague information.

 

“I think so,” the Batman nodded. “We need a mirror.”

 

*************

 

“I do not understand what we are doing?” Diana asked a few minutes later when they were gathered in an empty hospital room, facing a cabinet mirror. “I thought we required both pieces of the talisman for it to take us to Ares.”

 

“I think we still do,” Bruce replied, holding the object in his gauntlet and examining it once more. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about prophecies, the wording is specific. Harmonia’s half, must be joined as one.”

 

“That means both pieces,” Clark pointed out.

 

“Maybe,” Bruce replied unconvinced, “but I’m curious as to why it was broken up and its origins masked. Maybe the pieces apart can’t do bring us to Ares but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some kind of mystical power here.”

 

“I think you’re reaching,” Superman said sceptically.

 

“Perhaps he is,” Diana considered his words and voiced the reservations she had not spoken before now, “there is wisdom in what he says. I have questioned how a face-to-face battle with the war god can save the Patriarch’s World. For all my strength, I cannot face him in combat and win. If I am to thwart him, it must be by some other means than battle. For all our efforts, his plan has not been made clear to us at all. We know he is moving in the Patriarch’s World but what he intends to do here is a mystery.”

 

“Exactly,” Bruce retorted, “we need answers and we don’t have a lot of time. My gut tells us we’re running out of it, fast.”

 

With Lois lying comatose somewhere, Clark tended to agree. Things were coming to ahead and they needed to take a chance, no matter how outlandish it might seem. “Alright, I’m with you. What do we do?” Superman asked.

 

Bruce Wayne, aka Batman sucked in his breath and held the one-half of Harmonia’s talisman against the mirror before pressing the ancient amulet against the reflective surface and replying, “We take a trip through the looking glass, Alice.”

 

As soon as it made contact, a sudden reddish glow illuminated both pieces of talisman as the image in the mirror and the object Bruce was holding became for a brief instance, whole. The fluorescent lights died and suddenly, they were all bathed in darkness. The comfortable temperature of the room was replaced by the cold, Bruce found familiar in caves and other dark places, hidden away from the sun. He could hear the wind wailing around them and gravel under his boots.

 

”Bruce, Kal,” Diana’s voice cut through the momentary disorientation. “Stay close to me, whatever you do!”

 

They were standing on a narrow ledge of rock, no more than a meter wide across but it moved through the cavern like curling walkway, spiralling in places, like the coils of a serpent. What light there was came from sputters of sulphur and ash that coughed into the air at irregular junctures on the walkway, like pustules on flesh.

 

“Where are we?” Clark asked, trying to see what lay beyond their immediate location, to get some idea of where they were. It unsettled him when his enhanced vision he could not penetrate the blackness beyond the walkway.

 

”This is what my people have spent two thousand years guarding,” Diana explained. “When Heracles and his men violated my mother and sisters, the Amazons in their fury retaliated by slaughtering every last man who had harmed them. For this sin of cold-blooded murder, the Amazons were forced to pay penance by guarding Doom’s Door.”

 

“Doom’s Door?” Bruce blurted out, having done his reading on mythology since meeting Diana and being enlisted into the fight to prevent the End of Days. “That’s where we are?”

 

Hell, he cursed under his breath.

 

“What the hell is Doom’s Door?” Clark barked, his patience snapped at last.

 

“Tartarus,” Diana answered. “The Underworld where all evil is imprisoned.”

 

Chapter Twelve:

The God Of Dread

 

Before Jonathan Kent’s death, Clark’s attendance at Central Kansas University spanned only months before he was forced to drop out permanently. During that brief time, he only considered journalism as a career largely due to the disintegration of dreams of college football. Signing on for a degree in journalism and communications, Clark’s life in college for the rest of the year was one distraction after another and it was no surprise to anyone when he finally left.

 

Who knew that driving himself crazy about Lana and Lex during Classical Studies instead of paying attention was going to come back and bite him on the ass?

 

“Tartarus!” Clark demanded as he swept his gaze across the stygian world whose like was last described by Dante, with growing apprehension, “we’re in the Tartarus?”

 

“Is there any other?” the Batman retorted sarcastically, impatient with Clark’s hysterics about their situation. Then again, Bruce came from Gotham and in his mind the differences between this hell and the city of his birth wasn’t by much. “We’re here, that makes it real enough. Now we got to figure out how to get out of here.”

 

Diana was also looking around the place known to her only by description. “I do not understand why Harmonia’s talisman would bring us here,” She replied, confused by this latest turn of events. The Batman’s reasoning was sound. Even if it did not show them an answer, she had hoped they would at least be a step closer to Lord Ares’ plan. Blues eyes were searching the darkness, following the spidery tendrils of rock they were standing upon to other chambers where only horror existed. The malevolence in here was what the Amazon nation had spent two thousand years guarding at the loss of many lives. “It was meant to bring a step closer to Ares’ ultimate plan.”

 

“We’ll I’m finding a way out of here,” Clark declared, preparing to launch himself off the ledge. Even if he could see what was ahead, that did not mean he couldn’t reach it. He wasn’t staying in this dungeon while Lois and the rest of his friends at the Daily Planet were dying.

 

“Kal do not,” Diana warned and she approached him quickly. She understood his impatience and saw the fear for his lover in every word he spoke. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she tried to explain why it was not wise for them to separate. “This place is not for those who are unfamiliar with the gods. It is best if we remained together. I cannot imagine that our being here is accident even if I cannot fathom the reason.”

 

“She’s right,” the Batman added moving further up the ledge, side stepping a gurgle of sulfur and ash from one of the fissures. “The talisman brought us here,” he speculated, “there might be something it wants us to find.”

 

“Should we?” Clark countered feeling wholly out of depth but sensible enough to listen to those who knew better. “I thought Tartarus was where they kept the bad guys right. If something is down here, it might be for a good reason.”

 

“Good point,” Bruce paused as he looked over the ledge into the abyss below. Retreating, he bent over and broke off a piece of rock from the gravelly walkway with his gauntlet. Straightening up, he dropped the stone edge and listened closely.

 

Seconds ticked past and the rock continued to fall beyond the ability of human hearing. Turning to Clark, he asked, “can you hear it?” Even if his hearing was better than most, honed through years of discipline, Bruce knew that Clark could hear the prattling of an entire planet.

 

Clark listened, taking up Bruce’s request. He could hear other things. Slithering things. Things that breathed hard and wailed like a banshees, things that crawled and shrieked, chilling his blood to the bone but not the rock that Bruce had thrown.

 

“No,” he shook his head. He didn’t tell the dark avenger what he could hear.

 

“You cannot measure this place by conventional means Bruce,” Diana explained to these men who were governed by things tangible and scientific. “This place was meant to hold creatures that are unnatural.”

 

“How comforting,” Bruce retorted dryly. “I say we don’t stay in one place to let these things find us then, we should get moving.”

Clark was all for getting underway but that brought up an obvious question.

 

“In which direction?” He was still trying to see through the walls with his x-ray vision without much success. It was as if everything was made of lead and he was blind. X-ray vision was something he possessed since he was a teenager and it unnerved him how much he relied on it.

 

“I think we should take to the air,” Diana suggested. “Aloft we will be more difficult to attack.”

 

“I admire your ability to make the distinction,” Bruce complimented, unable to deny that her tactical mind impressed him. It was so easy to forget that within that dazzlingly beautiful woman was the discipline of a warrior.

 

“Come on, you can ride with me,” Clark retorted coming up alongside of Bruce. It wasn’t just his desire to get to Lois that was nagging at him but being so far away from the sun was unsettling. “Unless you want to ride with Diana.” That almost made Clark smirk.

 

Bruce threw him a look, “don’t be juvenile.”

 

Diana, however, was not paying attention to the mild ribbing between the two friends. Something else entirely preoccupied her. Eyes searching the darkness, she tried to pinpoint the source of the tremor she felt within her heart, a shudder in her bones she had felt only once before. Her mother said that she was not born as others were. Diana had come into being by goddesses breathing life into clay.

 

“Diana what is it?” Bruce asked immediately when he caught sight of her expression of bewilderment.

 

“Something…” she mused, still searching the black, “Something is coming.”

 

Her heart was pounding because she felt this sensation only once before.

 

The night before the commencement of the tournaments to decide who would wear the red, white and blue standards of the Patriarch’s World, Diana had been walking alone on a beach in Themiscyra. While all her sisters would be participating tomorrow, her mother forbade Diana to compete. In disappointment, she had fled the palace, frustrated because she knew she could win but too bound by duty to disobey the Queen.

 

Saddened by the emptiness of unfulfilled destiny, Diana had walked for hours, not even taking to the skies because her heart felt so heavy, she thought she would drop like a stone if she tried. In the moment of greatest despair, a sensation had filled her, equal parts of foreboding and uneasiness. It was a feeling that touched her to her core and though she was brave as any warrior of Themiscyra, she felt could not forget the chill that ran through her bones. As if she had strayed into the presence of something beyond her ken.

 

Instead, all she saw was a woman on the beach. A woman she had never seen before and knew without doubt was not one of her Amazon sisters. The woman stood tall and strong, with dark hair and eyes of green that were flecked with gold. She wore the armor of a queen and on her shoulder sat an owl with saucer like eyes.

Diana had remembered dropping to her knees, head bent because she was realized at that moment, she was addressing a goddess.

Athene had told her that night that her destiny would only come to her if she dared seize it.

 

What followed was Diana’s determination to do just that. She competed against her mother’s wishes, disguising herself to win the right to be the Amazon champion in the Patriarch’s World.

 

This time however, she suspected the experience would not produce an outcome as positive.

 

“Diana?” Bruce approached her slowly, “what is it?” He asked her in a gentle voice than was common for the persona of Batman. “What do you see?”

 

“I do not see anything,” she whispered. “I can feel it, we must go. Something powerful approaches.”

 

Clark was looking around, trying his hardest to see or hear whatever Diana had claimed was coming at them but in this place, he was blind and helpless to shed any light on the situation. “I can’t see anything…” he added.

 

“You need not look far mortal. I can see you well enough,” a voice appeared out of nowhere almost, materializing from a speaker who had appeared at the end of the walkway they were standing upon.

 

He stood at least eight feet tall, towering over them with an almost skeletal gait. Clad in a dull, sliver armor with ornate patterns of Grecian design, his face was concealed by the Corinthian helmet that protected the eves and showed only his long this nose and jutting jaw. His eyes were nothing but dark sockets and where there was should have been hair was long, writhing snakes of green. They coiled around him, hissing and spitting, a living crown surrounding the man.

 

“Jesus…” Clark muttered, having though he hadn’t seen anything more terrifying than the Decay creature.

 

Diana was at Clark’s side in seconds with Bruce close behind.

 

Which one are you?” She demanded fearlessly, understanding now what had precipitated that sensation. “Which one of Ares’ servants are you?”

 

“I am no servant you pathetic Amazon whore,” the being glowered, flashes of red gleamed where eyes should have been. “I am Deimos, God of Dread. Give me the talisman Amazon and you and your companions may yet live to see the end of this day.”

 

The threat barely registered and Diana faced down the creature claiming to be a god, without flinching. “Is that why you sought us here? To steal it like a thief?”

 

“Sought you out?” Deimos uttered a dry, sneering laugh. “You misguided imbecile! I brought you here. Do you dare to presume to interfere with the plans of my father? His plan is inviolate and all of your efforts to halt it will only ensure this wrath upon you! Tonight was only a taste of what he could do to you,” he looked past Diana’s shoulder and sneered at Clark, “and your loves ones.”

 

“I’ve heard enough,” Clark declared angrily, launching himself at the being, giving not a damn if this was in fact a god or not. He didn’t believe it for a second and after what these so-called deities had done to Lois, didn’t care anyway.

 

“Kal no!” Diana shouted, leaping into the air to stop him when suddenly, Deimos’s dark eyes flashed and Clark saw the world evaporate before him.

 

********

 

He was lying face down in sand.

 

He could feel grains of it under his fingers.

 

Raising his head, he immediately blinked because the light was so bright that he could do nothing else. Above him the sky wasn’t blue. It was red, bright red. Like someone had taken a brush and painted it with shades of crimson. The sun in the sky wasn’t the reassuring yellow star that he knew but was instead a red giant looming enormously in the sky.

 

Where the hell was he?

 

Removed from the darkness of Tartarus, his new environment was very different indeed. He could see craggy cliffs in the distance, baking under the hot sun. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that he was back in the Zone but something told him that wasn’t right either. He was standing on the foot of a sandy embankment and while the way behind him offered no clues to where he was, Clark considered the path ahead might shed some light regarding as to his present location and what had happened to Bruce and Diana.

 

Leaping into the air, expecting to be airborne, Clark had a rude awakening when he landed hard on his face, gaining a mouth full of sand in the process. He couldn’t fly. Sweeping his gaze across the landscape, he realized he couldn’t see far ahead either. He was powerless. Panic began to set in as Clark realized that the lack of a yellow sun might be the reason for his loss of ability. Scrambling up the slope, he reached the top and hoped that he might understand what had happened to him.

 

Reaching the top, he felt his breath catch involuntarily.

 

In the distance, separated by what should have been Metropolis Bay, Clark saw no body of water but a sandy plain and the ruin city beyond it. Instinctively, he knew it was Metropolis. While not exactly the city remembered, some of the buildings were new to him, there was other features that simply stood out. He had flown over Metropolis enough times to recognize the contours of the land, the shape of the New Troy Island on which the city was built.

 

It was Metropolis before him and the city was dead.

 

Stunned and horrified at the same time, Clark found himself walking forward, unable to think of anything else to do. Where was everybody? If this was Metropolis then he wasn’t on any alien planet but Earth. The sun above him was the star Sol, he realized. A yellow sun became a red giant when it was dying, when fusion had stopped and the star was reaching critical mass. Inside his chest, Clark’s heart was pounding so loudly, if there was anyone left alive on this dead rock, they would surely hear it.

 

During his training with Jor-El at the fortress, Kal-El had been taught the science of the cosmos and he knew that if Sol was a red giant than life no longer existed on Earth. The sun would expand five times its size, swallowing up Mercury and Venus as it grew. While Earth was not yet within its reach, it wouldn’t matter. There would be no oceans, no atmosphere. He shouldn’t even be breathing right now. Why hadn’t he died with the others?

 

God, what if he couldn’t?

 

What if being Kryptonian didn’t allow him to die?

 

All his life, only one thing had terrified Clark Kent more than anything in the world, more than losing Lois or the people he loved and that was never being able to die. When he was a teenager, a chance encounter with an elderly lady named Cassandra Carver had given him a preview of a future where he was surrounded by tombstones. A future where he would outlive everything. Now as he stood in the ruins of Metropolis, seeing the sun above him gasping its last, his worst nightmare appeared to be unfolding.

 

“No,” he shook his head, running down the embankment, his red cape covered in dust and sand, trailing behind him impotently. He wasn’t alone! He had been sent here by that spooky son of a bitch with his eyes, This wasn’t his future.

 

“DIANA! BRUCE!”

 

There was no answer and his voice faded into the rasping wind, scouring the barren landscape. He continued to call after them, praying that he wasn’t alone in this place. That he wasn’t doomed to enduring an end where he would be faced with his worst fear. Running forward, his boots leaving footprint against the sand, Clark ran up another slope, searching desperately for his friends.

 

Suddenly, he tripped and went over the edge of another steep incline. Rolling down the hill like a boulder, he felt a shoulder snap in pain as he landed a few seconds later, spitting out more dust. Getting on his hands and knees to stand up, Clark froze as he stared at what was before him.

 

Tombstones.

 

Breathing hard, not just from his run in this parched desert but because he knew the name etched into the baked stone. Letting out a slight gasp of anguish, Clark knew that this couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t but seeing what was in front of him was agonizing just the same.

LOIS LANE KENT

Beloved Wife and Mother

1985 – 2065

 

 

“This isn’t real!” He shouted at it, defying the headstone to say otherwise. “I am not here! This isn’t goddamn real!”

 

It had to be a trick, it just had to be, Clark Kent thought to himself.

 

It had to be because the alternative was unimaginable.

*********

 

 

The Batman saw Diana trying to stop Clark from reaching the creature calling itself the God of Dread. Of course it made perfect sense if you knew your classical mythology, Deimos was the child of Ares and Aphrodite. In the literature, Deimos accompanied his father into combat. If Ares was indeed planning global Armageddon, why wouldn’t his children be involved. While Deimos had been hurling insults at Diana, the Batman had been busy studying the god closely. Ignoring his chilling physical characteristics, what Bruce was most interested in was the talisman he was wearing as part of his armor. He was going to tell the others of this discovery when Clark rushed in prematurely against Diana’s warning.

 

There was barely enough time for Bruce to register the dark sockets of Deimos’ eyes coming to life with two red pinpricks of light. The glow lasted a millisecond and then everything went dark and the Batman as no longer standing in the middle of Tartarus facing an Olympian.

 

He was standing in the middle of a dark alley.

 

The smell of stale liquor and dry piss assaulted his nostrils almost immediately and he flinched, thinking that sometimes a finely honed sense of smell wasn’t the best thing to have in a place used by man and animal as a toilet. In the distance, he could hear the chatter of voices and cars driving roads. A street lamp illuminated the alley and helped him to focus after the disorientation of being transported here so abruptly had worn off.

 

It took the Batman approximately half a second to realize WHICH alley he was in.

 

The logical mind told Bruce immediately that this was an illusion, a mental trick, conjured up by a god who knew exactly which buttons to push. Deimos didn’t even have to look very far to recreate the setting. The images had been burned into his mind ever since that terrible night. A psychologist might say that he never left this alley.

 

Still, despite the Batman’s discipline, being here was unsettling. The scene was picture perfect thanks to him. No expense spared to ensure it was presented in Technicolor, probably with THX sound too, he thought ruefully. Behind him was the theatre door that emptied into the narrow space between two old, dilapidated buildings. The brick of each wall on either side were slick with grime and a lamppost in the middle of the alley, illuminated the puddles of foul water and rotting garbage. A dumpster sat ominously against one wall, flies buzzing above it, circling the stench.

 

"Come on Bruce," he heard a voice and it hollowed his stomach, shaking the discipline he had tried so hard to maintain when confronted with this one memory.

 

"Dad..." he wanted to say, his voice a strangled whisper.

 

Thomas and Mary Wayne were smiling at him, gesturing him to follow but he was rooted to the spot. They walked forward anyway, still expecting him to follow. They saw him as their little boy, not as a grown man in a costume that brought terror to criminals and ensured his life would never be normal. Each step they took, brought them closer to inevitability, to the end he did not wish to see.

 

It’s an illusion he told himself but Bruce still wanted to shout at them not to go.

 

He stepped forward and suddenly the costume felt heavier, as if it was weighing him down because it wasn’t part of the show. He glanced at his reflection in a puddle and saw a little boy, not the Batman. He knew he was wearing the suit. He lifted his hands and saw the gauntlets. He touched his face and felt the cowl. He was dressed as he should be, something dark and dangerous.

 

Something elemental.

 

It was at that moment he saw the shadow suddenly stepping out of nowhere from behind the dumpster, waiting for them like a predator in the dark. It was just as he remembered. How terrible it had seemed, how it had haunted his dreams for so many years after. How larger than life.

 

When it started towards his parents, it didn’t matter whether or not this was an illusion, Bruce Wayne was that child again and he could no more endure seeing his parents gunned down today than he could when he was eight years old.

 

"Dad, mom!" Bruce called out as he ran towards them, the Batman’s dark cloak billowing behind him.

 

The shot rang out within inches of Bruce reaching them. Freezing his tracks, he saw his father collapsing, blood splattering over the bat insignia on his chest. The look of surprise was just the same, the pain that followed equally so. The second shot drew his attention away from his father to his mother, the bullet hit her in the neck, splashing the exposed part of his face with a spray of arterial blood.

 

When the gun fell on the ground, it did so like the hammer of some cosmic mechanism slipping into the place.

 

The shadow looked at him and smiled with a harlequin's crimson grin, "it doesn't matter who you are or who you try to be, Bruce. You can’t save them all."

 

Bruce let out an anguish cry of rage as he saw the bodies of his dead parents lying against filthy concrete and felt something inside his snap. Illusion or not, the fury he restrained so tightly exploded with the ferocity of a black star.

 

He reached the shadow creature like a dark, angry storm and began pummeling the murderer of his parents like a man possessed. Jackhammer blows propelled by a lifetime of anguish and despair, one after the other. Until the harlequin smile beneath him was covered in blood, like he was covered in its blood. It intermingled with the blood of his parents who were still on the ground behind him, dead. Their life were pooling around them in a widening puddle of dark blood.

 

Beneath him, the raspy voice sneered. “Still dead Bruce, you can beat down the whole world but it won’t change anything. They will still be dead and you’ve become a monster. A freak of the night that will scare everything that sees you and you still won’t be there in time to save anyone. You couldn’t save them any more than you could save Chloe.”

 

And Bruce screamed in fury and anguish because the shadow thing was right about that. He hadn’t been able to save anyone, least of Chloe.

 

Chapter Thirteen:

Whom Gods Destroy

 

Seconds after both her comrades had fallen lost in the terrible stupor of Deimos’ nightmarish realm; the Amazon Princess found herself the focus of the demi-god’s singular attention. Both Bruce and Kal were crumpled up on the ground, their face a rictus of fear and horror. She saw Bruce curled up in a ball and fought the urge to run to his side, feeling immediately guilty that she thought of him first, not because he was most vulnerable, but because of what she felt for him.

 

It was an advantage she should not have given the God of Dread.

 

“What is this?” She heard his voice snap her focus back to him sharply. “Your thoughts are transparent Princess…” Deimos sneered. “Has the chosen one of Olympus been soiled already by the Patriarch’s World? I would have thought it would have taken some time at least for your supple thighs to be unclenched? I suppose that is the way with all you Amazon whores…”

 

“You will not bait me…Servant.” She retaliated sharply, far too sensible to be provoked by his vulgar innuendo. The demi-god had not struck her down as he had Bruce and Kal and she wondered why this was. “If that is the best you can do, then I suggest you inflict me with the same horror that you have cursed upon my friends and cease your obscene prattling.”

 

“You bitch,” the god hissed, “No unpleasant little nightmares for you. I will tear you apart piece by piece. You, I have left for myself.”

 

With that, the snakes that made up his unholy mane lashed out like cobras springing and crossed the distance between them to wrap their coils around Diana’s body. She could feel them circling her legs, arms and torso. Her ears filled up with the sound of their vile hissing, her lungs recoiling at their fetid breath. Through the serpentine coils crisscrossing over her face, she saw Deimos approach, Harmonia’s talisman hanging at the belt around his waist.

 

Sharp teeth tore into her skin and she realized that the snakes were not merely intending to suffocate her – their fangs were also filled with poisonous venom, venom that a child of the Gods may not be able to withstand. Clenching her fist around the largest of the creatures circling her neck, Diana tore it away in one powerful movement. She felt the reptile go slack in her grip before tossing it aside. However, the snakes were like the hydra, where one was removed another was there to take its place.

 

“Fight little princess but you are nothing but an Amazon, clay given life. I am a god,” Deimos taunted vaingloriously as if the whole of Tartarus was audience to their battle. “I am the son of the greatest of gods, who for too long has abided by the rules of Zeus to remain out of the affairs of men! When he rules in Olympus, I will be at his side and I will toast your destruction by taking my pleasure in your whore sisters in Themiscyra!”

 

Diana ignored his obscene words, knowing that he was only trying to distract her from escaping his serpentine clutches. She jerked at the stinging pain of another unholy snake clamping its jaws around her cheek, drawing blood. Diana winced in pain as she ripped it away, literally decapitated it when its head came away from the elongated body. Hot blood sprayed against her cheek and she had to blink to keep its poisonous fluids from blinding her.

 

However, something else was beginning to sap at her strength and Diana knew that the venom was beginning to taint her blood with its poison. If Deimos did not succeed in killing her with his serpentine mane, the vile substance in her body would.

 

No! She cried defiantly in her mind, refusing to entertain any possibility of defeat. She was an Amazon and the survival of both the Patriarch’s World and Themiscyra depended on her prevailing.

 

Suddenly, something else penetrated through the haze of pain and her efforts to fight off the poisonous serpents around her. A heart wrenching scream cut through her ears, stilling her breath when she recognized from whom it came. A world of sorrow and grief rode on the crest of that anguished cry.

 

Without even seeking out the source, she knew it had come from Bruce.

 

The pain and anguish in his voice tore at her heart and more than anything, she wanted to go to him. Accustomed to his proud spirit and sheer force of will, the extraction of such cry from the Batman filled Diana a surge of fury. Mustering all the power at her disposal, she launched herself off the rocky ground, climbing into the darkened air above. Like ropes pulled taut under the strain of a dead weight, the snakes tightened their grip as she dragged their master into the air with her.

 

Deimos let out an indignant cry of outrage as he was lifted of the precipice where he and Diana had stood. Digging his nails into the rock wall as he was dragged upwards, his fingers raked grooves across the hardened surface. “This pitiful effort will avail you nothing Amazon. The importance placed upon your existence by your patrons only does disservice to your entire race. In the end, what you are matters little!”

 

“We shall see about that,” Diana spat back, grabbing the snakes attached to her form in mid length, compressing them under her palms like a thick rope. She held on fast and then swung hard. Deimos, attached into the end, smashed into a wall, his bulk shattering a length of walkway, causing debris and black rock to rain down into the darkness. Swinging him across again, she gave him no quarter, even when more monstrous coils sprung forth from the god to encircle her.

 

They descended upon her like a writhing wall, capturing her in mid air. She felt them surround her ankles and her wrists, their sharp teeth like knives biting into her until her whole body screamed in protest. She could not endure much more of this. Despite her defiance, Diana could feel the poison sap more and more of her strength. She had to stop this and soon. However, she would give Deimos one chance at surrender.

 

If he refused her, Diana would bear no guilt for what happened next.

 

“Release me or suffer the consequences,” she said suddenly. Her voice calm and deliberate despite the fact they were continuing their relentless tug of war.

 

Deimos actually laughed at this as he clung harder to the rock face. “You? You are warning me Princess?”

 

Princess. Hearing Deimos refer to her as such when the only other male who had done so was Bruce made Diana bristle with annoyance. Glaring at him through narrowed eyes, she reached for her brow, removing the tiara through the tangle of jet coloured hair. Ignoring the bites and the stinging pain throughout her body, Diana straightened the golden band around forehead until it was flat and straight.

 

“Will you yield, son of Ares?” Diana demanded one last time.

 

“Your arrogance knows no bounds whore!” Deimos bit back, causing more serpents to squirm out of his skull towards her. “You forget yourself whore! I am the son of a god....”

 

Diana shook her head, feeling near pity for his lack of understanding. By the time, he realized the truth. It would be too late. “You are indeed a god,” she cut him off. “But it is you who forget yourself, particularly in regards to where you are. This place was built to imprison the Titans; it was made to withstand the likes of Cronus. Here, all beings are made equal. In Tartarus I am not yours god of Dread, rather you are mine.”

 

With that, Diana hurled the tiara in her hand. It tumbled through the black like a Catherine wheel in the night sky moving so quickly that Deimos neither had time to see it or for that matter register what it could do. Not until it struck. The tiara sliced through several strands of reptilian flesh before meeting its mark with deadly accuracy.

 

The cut was swift and clean giving the demi-god no time to react. He might have comprehended an instant before the tiara struck but if he did, he had no time voice it.

 

His head came away from his neck and the snakes attached to it, all screeched in startled surprise agony as Deimos’ decapitated skull fell off his shoulders. They withdrew abruptly as they rushed back to their master’s lifeless form. Diana watched them shrink back around Deimos’ body as his slackened fingers released the handhold keeping him in place against the rock face.

 

His corpse landed on the walkway where Bruce and Kal were still gripped in the god’s malicious illusion. Diana wasted no time in reaching the body to remove the second half of Harmonia’s talisman from his belt. Once the second half of the amulet was in her possession, she shoved his remains over the side.

 

With certainly less fanfare than he had arrived, Diana watched the God of Dread vanish into the abyss, taking his serpentine clients with him.

 

**********

 

Diana went to Bruce first, telling herself that her choice had to do with his being closer, even if her heart knew that was a lie. Whatever anger she may have felt at his earlier deception, Diana knew that it was forgotten in the face of her concern for him. She did not know if her affection for Bruce could be likened to the deep burning fire of Kal’s love for Miss Lane but Diana knew she did care greatly for him.

 

Dropping to her knees beside him, Diana reached for her lasso and immediately bound the Batman in its golden strands. At the time of her battle, she had wondered why Deimos had not tried to ensnare her as he had done to Kal and Bruce. However, now that there was more time to consider the question, she realized that the lasso of truth in her possession would allow no such illusion to cloud her mind. It had been forged by Hephaestus, a god who rivaled Ares in power. Deimos had no more power over it than he had over her.

 

“Bruce,” she brushed his cheek gently with her fingertips as she held the lasso against him with her other hand. “Let the veil of deception fall from your eyes. What you see is a trick of Morpheus, a nightmare drawn from that which frightens you. You are the strongest man I have ever encountered. I know you use fear as a weapon because you are all too aware of its power. Do not allow it to break your spirit. Fight, Bruce fight!”

 

Diana could feel him struggling and though she did not know what terrible things he saw in that nightmarish realm, Diana could hear its toll upon him by the sounds of his near silent sobs.

 

It broke her heart all over again and she lowered her lips to his, her eyes moist with emotion. “Please Bruce,” she whispered softly. “You are not alone. I am here with you. Come back to me.”

 

And somewhere in the dark recesses of an alley that still stood in the real world, the little boy covered in blood, weeping over his parents’ death, saw a glimmer of light leading him away from that terrible place. Like the sun peeking through the clouds, he forced himself to leave the grisly scene and follow the beam until he began felt the sunlight fall upon his skin again.

 

Bruce Wayne opened his eyes to see Diana leaning over him, her blue eyes staring at him with a mixture of hope and worry. Raising his hand shakily, a gauntleted finger touched her lips and was surprised when she tilted her head just enough to kiss the tip gently.

 

For a second, neither cowl nor bracelet existed. There was no great destiny to fulfill, no dark quest for either of them to overcome. All that remained was the two of them, hope and despair finding solace in each other. He wanted to bask in that moment forever, to brand the memory of her in his mind forever. However, he was still the Batman and the moment was to fragile for him to forget everything else that was happening around them.

 

As his powerfully honed senses returned to him, Bruce noticed her usually perfect skin marred by a multitude of tiny bites. Snake bites, he identified immediately. “You’re hurt.”

 

“I will recover,” she said with a wan smile.

 

Bruce nodded. “Deimos?”

 

“Dealt with.” Diana answered firmly, having no desire to go into detail about how she had slain a god. While it was a necessary action, taking a life, even one like Deimos’ was not something she took triumph in. Loosening the lasso around him, Diana broke away and stood up, her eyes turning towards Kal who was still struggling in his own nightmare.

 

Brushing aside what had transpired between them because she needed her thoughts to be clear and focused, Diana hurried towards Kal. “Kal is still in Deimos’ thrall,” she explained, looking at him a little shyly and reminding Bruce about how inexperienced she was for all her confidence and strength.

 

“You weren’t affected?” he asked as he got to his feet, shaking off the last vestiges of that terrible reality from his brain.

 

“Gaea be thanked no,” Diana replied, kneeling down next to Kal who was shaking and shuddering, uttering muffled words of distress. “The lasso is an instrument of truth, forged by the fires of Hephaestus; it would not allow me to be taken in by Deimos’ power. The only way he could harm me was through direct combat. Fortunately, he did not succeed.”

 

Binding Kal with the lasso, she turned to Bruce. “I need your assistance. You are his friend. He will hear you better than I. Call to him Bruce, he requires an anchor to be drawn out of his nightmare.”

 

Bruce was not about to refute the statement since it had worked so effectively on him when Diana had done the same thing.

 

As Diana bound Clark, Bruce knelt next to him and spoke firmly, “Clark, snap out of it. Whatever you are seeing, it’s an illusion. It’s a mind game Clark, a mind game to distract us from what we need to do.”

 

Clark reacted to his voice, like a man caught in a fog, searching for a way out. Clark shook his head as if fighting to dispel the images being forced upon him. Bruce could see Diana’s efforts to hold Clark still. Not an easy thing to do when he was Superman and possibly the strongest being on the planet.

 

“Keep talking to him!” she urged as she struggled to keep him from harming himself. “I can barely keep him subdued!”

 

Bruce could well believe it as he saw her using all her strength to ensure that Clark didn’t attempt to break out of the lasso’s hold. Turning to Clark, he considered a different tact and took a deep breath once he realized what was the best way to snap Clark Kent out of the dreamscape.

 

“Clark,” Bruce spoke firmly but with a good deal more emotion than he was accustomed to. “You need to snap out of this right now. Lois needs you Clark. Do you hear me? Lois needs your help. If we don’t stop this, Lois is going to die.”

 

If anything could snap Clark Kent out of his delirium, it was that.

 

It sliced through the parched landscape that Clark found himself trapped, it ripped away at the canvas of the amber sky with the crimson sun sneering at him and his weakness. Confronted by the gravestone that bore her name, Clark had clung to his sanity by telling himself that it was a trick. Hearing her name spoken with the chance to save her life was all Clark needed to pull himself out the hallucination.

 

“Lois,” he whispered as his struggles ceased to be less violent. He repeated her name like the mantra needed to find his way back to the world.

 

Clark blinked and saw Diana and Bruce looking at him with concern.

 

“Bruce…” he muttered as he tried to sit upright and this time Diana helped him instead of restraining him. He felt Bruce’s hand on his shoulder, pulling him forward until all of the disorientation he felt faded away. “I feel terrible.”

 

“No kidding,” Bruce retorted, hiding his relief at his friend’s state beneath his practiced mercurial demeanor. “Deimos decided to take us through the looking glass for a trip through our worst nightmares.”

 

“Well he was pretty damn accurate,” Clark declared, his jaw tightening. Disorientation was giving away to anger. The memory of what he had seen on that dead Earth was something Clark would not forget any time soon. It was not much more pleasant that what Bruce was subjected to, he was sure.

 

“Where is the son of a bitch?” He cursed with more venom that was usual as he stood up.

 

“Gone,” Diana answered, getting to her feet as well as she gathered up her lasso and began coiling it. “He will trouble us no more.”

 

The finality in which said that made Clark uneasy and he had to remember that Diana for all her naiveté and innocence was also from a culture of warriors. However, both he and Bruce were in uncharted waters where her gods were concerned and he wasn’t prepared to pass judgment when the fate of the world was at stake.

 

Like Bruce, he noticed the tiny bite marks and remembered the snake-like mane that Deimos had sported. It didn’t take a genius to determine how Diana acquired those wounds. “Are you alright?” He asked with concern. He knew she was strong, almost as strong as him but Diana was by no means invulnerable.

 

“I will be,” she reassured her. “My lasso protected me from his thrall. He had to deal with me in a more direct manner.”

 

Clark had no doubt about that and decided to ask no more on just what Diana had done to dispatch Deimos. By the looks of her, she had suffered just as much as he and Bruce under the God of Dread’s ministrations.

 

“Good,” Clark nodded, turning away to sweep his gaze across their prison and immediately noted the indentations in the rock face, the blood splattered across the rough hewn walkways. It must have been a hell of a fight, he thought silently. “Okay, barring anything else coming after us in this cavern of doom, can we please get out of here?”

 

”No argument from me,” Bruce agreed, his eyes shifting to Diana. “You have the second half of the talisman?”

 

“Yes,” Diana nodded, holding up the talisman for Clark to see. “I took it from Deimos.” She explained as she walked over to Bruce. “He made no effort to hide it. He did not perceive me as threat enough to feel the need.”

 

“Obviously someone whose never seen a James Bond film,” Clark remarked.

 

“Don’t knock it,” Bruce retorted with a little smile. “If megalomaniacs didn’t let their egos run away with them, we’d never stumble onto their master plans. Here,” he handed Diana the half of the talisman in his possession.

 

”Why…?” she started to ask.

 

“This is your mission Princess,” the Batman said to her. “You should do this.”

 

Diana nodded slowly, feeling a sense of wonder at this gift of kinship these two men had extended to her. Their friendship was already strong and lasting while she was a newcomer to their circle. Yet, they recognized in her the same desire to help that they shared so deeply, even if their expression of it differed greatly. Diana felt privileged at the invitation and knew that for the rest of her days, Bruce and Kal would be the standard for all men she would ever meet in the Patriarch’s World. One was like the brother she never had while the other, the lover she sometimes dreamed.

 

Together, they were night, day and hope.

 

They were trinity.

 

*********

 

She watched through narrowed eyes, burning with hatred as the Amazon whore joined both parts of Harmonia’s talisman. The convergence of both pieces ignited a burst of light so brilliant that for an instant, all of Tartarus came alive as if Apollo himself was riding through its depths in his golden chariot. She turned away, unable to look, blinded by the brilliance of it until the shadows began to reappear in the cavern.

 

She was only able to look upon the place where the Amazon was standing when the glow had diminished and the dark had returned to reclaim Tartarus once again. As expected, the Amazon and her new allies were no longer in the prison. Harmonia’s talisman had given them the escape they needed. The talisman would bring them both to the heart of Ares’ plan where they would undoubtedly try to interfere.

 

“We cannot let that happen, can we?” She asked as she looked down into the abyss.

 

If one had vision enough to see all the way to the bottom, they would spy the amber raditation of a fiery wheel, spinning into eternity, never slowing, never allowing the prisoner bound to it a moment’s respite. The wheel was spoken of in ancient myths to journey across the sky in and endless cycle. Such fanciful tales were borne out of its sheer size for no beast in Tartarus was as relentless or gargantuan as the creature held in place against it.

 

“We cannot let that murdering whore go forth unpunished for taking the head of a god.” She hissed. “He was an arrogant fool but he was still my brother.”

 

A disembodied voice from the wheel spoke out in answer.

 

Unleash me. Unleash me and I will do your father’s bidding. I will grind their bones to dust and lay waste to their lands without mercy. I will rain upon them such bloody destruction that they will have no choice but to give up the quest to hinder your father’s designs. When they come to me, I will make them pay for your brother’s death.

 

She who was called Eris, Goddess of Discord and sister to Deimos smiled, “I was hoping you would say that.”

 

Chapter Fourteen:

Launch

 

They say when the world was made, it was made with light.

 

When the two halves of Harmonia's talisman met for the first time in an age, an explosion of light filled the eyes of all who witnessed it, blinding them from the dark caverns of doom until there was nothing but brilliance that let corner of their minds escape. It was like passing through the threshold of some great unknown, a step taken from realm to another, perhaps it was like being reborn.

 

And reborn they were, the three that passed through the eye of the needle. They had stepped through apart but emerged as a trinity of dark, light and hope.

 

When the light finally fell away from their eyes to give the world shape again, Clark Kent found himself not in any stygian world steeped in ancient myth but rather a more contemporary setting that was jarring in its familiarity. Surrounded by greenish gray walls, with a floor of concrete and steel beneath his feet, Clark swept his gaze through the long corridor that reeked of military construction. In his youth, he had dreamt of being swept away to a place like this, locked up forever because of his alien heritage. While this place no longer held that kind of power over him, Clark could not ignore the tendril of residual anxiety at being here.

 

Fortunately, there was no time for him to linger for because the visual information was quickly forgotten by the uneven chorus of frightened and frantic voices that pierced the wail of screaming sirens around them. The others could only hear the banshee screeching of warning, flashing through the place through red strobes but with his enhanced hearing, Clark could hear far more. He could hear the terror in voices of men who were unaccustomed to feeling, who were determined and panicked at the same time. He could hear the staccato rhythm of gunfire.

 

This cymbal clashing of contrasting sound allowed him to shake off the disorientation of teleportation far quicker than Bruce and Diana.

 

“What is that terrible screeching?” Diana demanded, her hands going to her ears as her blue eyes searched the source of the din and found a flashing red globe attached to wall, its light pulsing through red glass in concern with the screaming noise. “It sounds like the harpies!”

 

“Evacuation signal,” Bruce spoke above it, quickly identifying the message in it’s the pauses and lengths of sound bursts.

 

"Something's wrong here," Clark declared, already scanning through the walls and grateful that this time his powers were whole and not limited owing to the magic of Diana's 'gods'. "I can hear people talking…"

 

He stopped speaking abruptly.

 

 

Bruce saw Clark’s expression turn white and anything that affected the man of steel that way was something that gave the Batman cause for grave concerned.

 

“What is it?” He asked, almost afraid to ask. "What are you seeing?"

 

“Jesus Christ.” Clark whispered aghast, revealing nothing but also enough.

 

“That’s not helpful,” Bruce said impatiently, feeling the icicles along his spine at Clark's utterance. Clark was not prone to invoking the creator or his son in any fashion without very good reason.

 

“We have to go now,” Clark retorted, not bothering to explain as he hoisted Bruce in the air with him without any warning and called out to Diana, "Follow me!”

 

Diana did so without question because like Bruce, the expression on Kal's face filled her with a terrible sense of dread. Leaping into the air, she followed him as he flew through the halls of the installation.

 

Bruce had no time to protest as he was spirited away from where he was standing. It was not his preferred method of transport but when Clark was this worried, he kept his complaints to a minimum. Clark's urgent need was further evidenced by the route to the source of his anxiety. Bracing himself, Bruce kept his head down when Clark smashed through walls of concrete instead of navigating the maze of corridors to reach his destination. The Batman felt chunks and fragments of rock scraping past the Kevlar and cloak of his costume as Clark crossed the distance to the trouble in a straight line that took them to its origin in mere seconds.

 

When he was set down, Bruce understood why.

 

There were bodies, too many to count. They were strewn throughout the corridor, some leaning against walls, trailed to the floor by smears of blood. Face down on the floor, others dangling from railings. Bruce's keen eye caught the sight of shell casings littering the concrete floor. Some came from the weapons of the dead, but most that died were unarmed. Their expression mostly surprised. The armed dead appeared further along the killer's path, most likely responding to the violence they could not stop.

 

The killing shot were all to the head.

 

The shooter was not leaving anyone alive, it seemed. As Clark, Bruce and Diana followed this path of blood, it soon become apparent that there was dead all the way down to the lower level where Bruce could now hear voices. He saw Clark's jaw tighten in anger but Diana's was one of horror. She had never seen this kind of carnage and it reflected in her eyes. Instinctively, belying the uniform he wore, Bruce slipped his hand in hers and squeezed.

 

Unfortunately for him, this kind of violence was all too much a part of his world.

 

"They're ours," Clark remarked at the uniforms of the dead.

 

"Yes," Bruce nodded, having already surmised that this installation was American.

 

They resumed their journey in flight, hastening their arrival at the last level. The last level was hardly a level as such. Clark had smash his way through the vault like door that allowed them passage to it. Once through, it emptied into a wider hall which culminated in another seemingly impenetrable door. This one however, was adorned with signs warning away all comers who would dare to approach without proper authorization.

The voices that drew Clark here belonged to the men who were trying desperately to penetrate the door with all the warnings. Some were armed with machines guns, while others attempted to over ride the electronics that kept the door sealed. Two were attempting a more direct approach, burning through the steel with propane torches. Judging from their progress, it would be some time before they were met with any kind of success.

 

“What’s going on?” Clark demanded as he strode towards them, Bruce and Diana following closely behind. If there was anyone who could gain the immediate trust of these men, it was Superman.

 

 

Such was the urgency of the situation that the soldiers who looked over their shoulder to see them, reacted to their presence in a high security facility, not with hostility or suspicion but rather unconcealed relief.

 

"Superman!" One of them exclaimed.

 

"Thank God!" Another declared in similar jubilation.

 

The leader of the group, a full bird Colonel, pushed his way through his comrades to greet the new arrivals.

 

"Superman," the Colonel said with the same relief. "I never thought I’d be happy to see you here but we need your help. One of our generals has had some kind of psychotic episode. He came down here after opening fire on his own people before locking himself in there.” He gestured towards the heavy door that his men were trying to breach.

 

“What is in there?” Diana asked, noting the warning signs that revealed nothing except danger.

 

“Missile control,” Bruce answered automatically before the Colonel named Trevor could answer. His mind had been carefully putting the pieces together as soon as he realized that they were in a US military installation of some kind. “If Ares wants Armageddon, this is the best way to make it happen. It would only take a matter of minutes for a missile launch from the United States to be responded to by the Russians or the Chinese, am I correct?" He looked to Trevor for confirmation.

 

"That’s right,” Trevor nodded surprised at how well informed the man in the cowl was. “Once the missile enters either Russian or Chinese airspace, either side will be bound to launch a counter strike. This war could be over before anyone realizes what's happened." He said grimly. "General Hayes until a short time ago was the head of this facility. He was the most stable and reliable man I've ever met. This doesn't make any sense but he killed everyone who could stop him from getting access to launch. He has both keys and the codes for launch."

 

Clark had heard enough.

 

“Stand aside,” He ordered and took a step towards the door.

 

Like Moses parting the Red Sea, the soldiers cleared a path for him as he stepped towards the huge, titanium strength door. Clark gripped the smooth metal surface with his fingers and dug in, almost six inches deep before tearing it off its hinges with a loud screech that made everyone wince. Lifting the door away from wall, he discarded it easily against the floor with a jarring clang.

 

As soon as the path was clear, the armed soldiers, poised to deal with their errant commander, prepared to rush past the heroes and deal with the situation.

“Wait,” Bruce shouted, halting them before they could enter a situation they were unprepared for and could result in more lives lost. “Let us go in first. There's more going on here than just the General having an episode. You’ve lost enough men today and we’ll be able to deal with him without losing any more.

 

“We don’t let civilians clean up our mess,” Trevor declared hotly, the memory of the dead still vivid in his mind.

 

“Please,” Diana pleaded, coming forward to address the man. “Listen to him. Your comrade may be influenced by forces you do not understand, forces that allowed him to get this far without being injured. Did you not consider how he was able to survive when so many of yours have fallen trying to stop him?"

 

Trevor felt silent because he did wonder about that. After the first barrage of gunfire had been reported, security details had been dispatched to pacify the situation and somehow, the General had mowed them down as if they were nothing. These were men who were armed and experienced in combat. It hadn't seemed real until now.

 

Diana saw that he was considering her words and added gently, "if you rush in unawares, most lives could be lost. Let us help. Our goal is the same, to end the bloodshed."

 

The Colonel cleared his throat and Bruce saw his stubbornness give way the sincerity in Diana’s voice as well as the unparalleled beauty of the woman before him. It was a combination that mortal man had no defense, Bruce could personally attest.

 

Clark would have gone in there one way or another but he was Kansas bred and a healthy respect for the men in uniform was something he had not discarded, no matter how much Kryptonian training he had undergone. His love Jonathan Kent would never be superseded by that. Besides, Diana's words would convince the most hard hearted man and Clark could see the man starting to give in.

 

“Alright,” Trevor conceded the point. “We’ll stand down but I hope you’re right about this for all our sakes.”

 

“You have made a wise decision,” Diana replied, smiling gratefully at him.

 

Grateful that he wasn't going to have to go against the Colonel’s wishes, Clark stepped through the doorway with Bruce and Diana entering after him. It was a good thing they did because no sooner than Clark had entered the vestibule that emptied into missile control room, the air exploded with the sound of gunfire.

 

“Get clear!” Bruce ordered the soldiers outside the door who might be tempted to enter upon hearing gunshots as he and Diana took cover behind Clark.

 

The bullets flattened impotently against Superman's chest, dropping to the floor beneath his feet like spare changed. The shooter was indeed General Hayes, looking into a clearly disheveled state. One hand was wrapped around the P-90 he was holding while the other was near the instrument panel before him. His fingers were poised over a button. The button.

 

“Stay back!” He barked, firing again once he saw the first wave had done little to stop the intruder. The bullets smashed against the 'S' shield of Clark's costume, some even ricocheting into walls, blowing out light fixtures and instrument panels. Sparks and glass flew in all directions.

 

Bruce looked at the panel and saw that both keys had been inserted into their slots and activated, now only requiring the firing button to be activated. Normally this would belong to two men, with launch codes provided by presidential order. Hayes' position and no doubt assistance from Ares had allowed him to bypass all those security protocols to bring about Armageddon.

 

“I am not going to hurt you,” Clark said reassuringly, “but you have to stop what you’re doing.”

 

“No!” Hayes screamed maniacally. “I have to do this! I have to show Elizabeth that she has no right to do what she did to me! I loved her…I loved her so much and all the time, she was using me, trying to get to me so that she could spy for those Chinese bastards!”

 

He thought of all the words she had said to him, all the love he thought was his. All of it had been a lie, a lie because she wanted to use him, because they told her to make him love her. The rage boiled inside his veins, mixing vilely with his anguish. He wanted to make them pay, make her pay and mostly importantly, he wanted to make his pain stop.

 

Clark was about to act when Diana stepped out of his shadow and walked towards the General.

 

"It is a lie, a cruel lie," Diana spoke softly, her words laced with kindness. "You were tricked and hurt by those who would use you but this is not the way to fight back. They wish you to do this. They knew your pain would drive you do this? You are a good man Steven, I sense that. Do not let them play with you as if you were their puppet."

 

“Diana,” Bruce warned, not convinced this tactic would work. She wasn’t bullet proof and though what she could do with those bracelets was amazing, he didn’t trust Hayes not to react violently.

 

Diana understood Bruce's concern for her but she continued nonetheless. "You are not killer General," she resumed speaking, taking another step closer, like a hunter stalking a frightened animal. “You have served your people faithfully for many years and it is by design that you were chosen to be manipulated in this way. They knew you were of stout heart and only a matter of the heart could influence you to this terrible action.”

 

“No…” Hayes shook his head, wanting desperately to believe he wasn’t a dupe, that it wasn't a lie, that he wasn't so easily fooled. “Elizabeth…”

 

“Your Elizabeth may be just as much a pawn in this as you Steven," Diana pressed, sensing a chink in the armor of his unreason she could penetrate. "Would you prefer to die, to condemn her without ever knowing that she truly loved you? Without knowing that she may be just as helpless as you are in all this?"

 

Between the three of them, it was a simple enough matter to disarm the man. Diana knew this. However, there was already too much violence and blood spilled this day. Too often, people forgot that love was a weapon too. Since coming to the Patriarch's World, Diana had learned that it could be used in the cruelest of ways. Like Eris’ poisoning of Lois Lane and now whatever deceptions this man had suffered to drive him to this course. She had to believe that men were not all slaves to their passions that in their hearts, they were inherently good until circumstances made them otherwise.

 

In any case, if her attempt to reach him failed, Diana was confident that Kal could neutralize this man before he could unleash destruction upon his people.

 

Steven Hayes stood in place, wrestling a life time of service and dedication to his duty, trying to ignore the rage that wanted him to make the world burn. Somewhere in the depth of him, he knew this was wrong. He knew that this destruction was not the answer to his grief.

 

“Do you she might… love me?" His eyes met her, his lips quivering with indecision.

 

“I think you owe it to yourself to find out before you condemn so many to die?” Diana inched closer. She was almost to the console where his hand lingered over the launch button

 

The General was still undecided, wrestling his emotions as the beautiful woman's words penetrated. She looked at him with eyes older than the Earth, deeper than the sea and the madness that had caused him to murder so many had begun to seem further and further away. He did not protest when her warm hand slipped over his own, his fingers ready to push the button that would make the world a pyre of flame, a monument to his jilted lover. Transfixed by her gaze, he remained still, wishing her to take away the anguish that had brought him to this moment.

 

However, the madness inside of him marshaled a final effort at resistance and when took his hand away from the button, the General reacted with a start, pulling the trigger.

 

"DIANA!" Bruce shouted out in warning, seeing the man's body language change.

 

Reacting swiftly, Diana shoved the gun barrel aside just as he fired, sending a round of bullets whizzing past her ear to impact on the wall behind her. Yanking the weapon from his grip, she crushed it easily in her fist before her other hand shoved him into a corner, away from the instrument panel.

 

It was not the way that either Bruce or Clark would have handled the situation but Diana was a different kind of warrior. For the Amazon Princess, it was important knowing when to fight and when not too.

 

 

*******

 

As Colonel Trevor and his men took charge of the General who know seemed to be in a catatonic state, either of his own making or due to some after effect of his manipulation by Ares, the danger at this installation was averted. However, Bruce was under no illusions that that Ares' plan for Armageddon was over.

 

"We have to get to the other bases," Bruce announced to Clark and Diana as they emerged from the missile control room. "We know what Ares' plan is now. Just because he didn't succeed here, does not mean he won't try at a Chinese or a Russian installation. All it takes is one successful launch and he'll have what he want anyway."

 

"So we've got to get to them," Clark nodded in understanding.

 

"The talisman will take us there," Diana added, sensing now why it was of such importance to retrieve the two pieces and unite them. Harmonia's talisman was the embodiment of unity and harmony. It was the only means to which discord and division could be fought. In a sense, Diana's own alliance with Clark and Bruce powered the talisman by their strength of belief in all things good.

 

Suddenly, the room turned dark, as if a shadow had fallen across it. Diana felt a chill run through her spine as suddenly the air became cold. A light globe exploded above them as the dark smoke filled the room, swirling around their knees like black ooze. The shadow in the corner lengthened, turned into a shape and then stepped out as a figure breathed in black armor, cloak billowing at its feet, moving like a living thing. In its full form, it stood above Clark, almost seven feet tall, pulling back its unseen lips to reveal white, pointed teeth.

 

"Do not pride yourself in this little victory Amazon," its voice hissed in malice and derision. "You have won nothing. One servant is easily taken but you are correct. There are two."

 

"Which one are you?" Diana demanded, preparing to use her lasso to make it speak the truth if necessary.

 

"Which one of what?" Clark looked at her, unnerved by the fact that his X-ray vision didn't register anything standing in the corner, even if he could see it. "Are these gods too?"

 

"I am Eris," the figure declared proudly. "Daughter of Ares and sister of a murdered brother." She glared at Diana, red eyes flaring with accusation. "You will pay for my brother's life, Amazon whore. Your quest has already failed, your sacred trinity about to fall apart."

 

"You will not stop us," Diana returned firmly, believing in the friends she had gained to help her prevent Ares' thirst for power. "We know now your father's plan and we will stop it."

 

"Will you now?" She cackled and turned to the Clark. "How will you stop anything when at this minute, your lover's life hangs in the balance."

 

"You can't threaten me with Lois," Clark returned sharply, not wishing to admit that Eris' invocation of Lois was striking closer to home than he liked. Refusing to be baited, he responded with resolve. "When we put an end to your father's plan, Lois will be fine."

 

In truth, Clark had no idea if that was true or not but he trusted Diana's word that Menalippe could save her.

 

"She will not live that long," Eris retorted and waved her hand, causing one of the monitor screens on the launch panel to come alive with images .

 

"Here is wisdom, son of Krypton. Tell me, if you had to choose between the world and your lover, your soul mate, which will you sacrifice?" She spat out those words with such certainty that Clark couldn't help but feel the icy talons of her malice clawing into his heart.

 

Bruce had a bad feeling about this, a feeling confirmed when the images showed televised footage of downtown Metropolis. At least he thought it was Metropolis. What they were seeing was a scene out of a war zone, cars were overturned, and lamp posts were lying strewn across the sidewalk and on the roads. Shop fronts were shattered, whole building appeared in piles of rubble. Across the tar road, the footsteps of something very large revealed itself in newly formed craters. In the background, people were screaming in horror and fear. Sirens could be heard wailing as emergency vehicles drove to unnamed destinations.

 

"What is this?" Clark demanded, seeing his home town in such a state of chaos.

 

"This is your very own Metropolis," Eris smiled cruelly, "and I have sent to your dear, sweet Lois, an emissary to wish her well in her recovery, the prisoner of the Great Wheel."

 

"Great Hera," Diana gasped in shock but recovered quickly. "Kal, go to Metropolis now."

 

"But…" Clark stammered, torn between his love for Lois and the greater good that needed to be accomplished by stopping Areas.

 

"NOW KAL! GO! She has released Ixion from Tartarus and before he reaches Lois, he will destroy everything and everyone in his path! GO!" Diana ordered sharply, before facing Eris once more. "I swear to you Goddess of Discord if she is harmed, I will be less merciful to you than I was to your brother."

 

"Clark," Bruce looked at his friend who was struggling not to panic. "You heard Diana, go. We will deal with this." His voice calm and sure, steady because Clark needed to believe it. Bruce knew Clark well enough to know that he would very well sacrifice Lois if he had to and in doing so would destroy himself.

 

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Clark assured them, "I promise."

 

"Get going," Bruce replied, certain that Clark would die trying.

 

The man of steel nodded and leapt into the air, smashing his way through the ceiling as he departed. Bruce watched him disappear up the numerous levels above them before he turned to Diana and Eris, still facing off each other.

 

"It's that the best you got?" He hissed, angrily. "What about me? You going to send some monster after my town too?"

 

"You mortal," Eris laughed. "I have something more delicious for you and it will be sweeter as an apple. When I am done with you, you will dream of nothing but a harlequin's smile."

 

 

Chapter Fifteen:

Ixion

 

She had remembered a night like this only once before.

 

Far back in her memory but always fresh when she remembered, she recalled how it felt to be broken and bleeding from being violated at the hands of men. Then left to ponder how it could have happened within the darkness of her cell. Her ears still rang from their laughter and derision, humiliated by their supreme confidence at having broken the mighty Amazon nation in the most despicable weapon at their disposal, their manhood. Chief among these had been the demi-god Herakles who used his serpent's tongue to charm Hippolyta, to inspire her to love him and then show her in the cruellest way possible how love could be a weapon of pain.

 

In the hours that followed, Menalippe like many other Amazons had remained in their chains, stunned and despairing at how they could have all been so easily deceived. A mistake that still stung on their pride as they wore the bracelets symbolic of the chains of that terrible night. Yet it was then, in their darkest hours, what the Amazon nation would call the Hour of Turning, they experienced both their worst moments also their greatest.

 

In their cells, they began to hear noises, blood curdling screams, sporadic and short.

 

They occurred like flashes of lightening, so fast and sudden that for a moment, it would have been considered imagination if not for the bodies left behind after. During that hour, they had waited, listening, praying for salvation, every Amazon in her cell.

 

That night the Queen of the Amazons proved why she was their leader, the queen who had broken free of demi-god and then proceeded to free her sisters from their bondage. That night had spawned a new dawn for the Amazon nation.

 

But in that hour when all was quiet and the violence was all they knew, the hope for that dawn seemed very distant indeed.

 

As it was now.

 

She had done all she could to combat the magic of Ares' daughter. Using all the healing knowledge at her disposal, Menalippe battled the malaise that had stricken the lover of the Patriarch's World champion. Lois Lane, whose spirit burned as bright as any Amazon had become their voice in this new world and now lay resting in her hospital bed while beyond its walls, Metropolis was a scene of chaos and horror.

 

The news reports that had all the hospital staff glued to the communal television set in the waiting room showed the rampage of the titan Ixion, undoubtedly unleashed upon the Patriarch's World by Ares, as he tore through the streets of Metropolis. What Menalippe knew that they did not, was that Ixion was coming here, coming for Lois Lane. The Champion of the Patriarch's World, a man not formed of Prometheus' clay, had power beyond imagination. Menalippe suspected that if he chose to wield it, not even Diana would be able to stand against him. She thanked the gods that the man had been raised by people of astonishing moral fibre who had instilled in him such goodness; he could have been Amazon in his upbringing.

 

Powerful he was in might but as anyone who loved, his vulnerability was his heart and his heart, was given to reporter who saw him as man first before god.

 

"I have rallied our sisters," Hippolyta said as she stood over Lois' bed, brushing a tender hand across the young woman's cheek. "They will be here soon to do battle with Ixion when he arrives. I doubt they will take our advice but the men of this world, need to know with what they are dealing with."

 

"Ixion can only be met by their champion or Diana," Menalippe pointed out as the sounds of sirens grew louder and the rumble beneath foot became more and more intense. Ixion's approach could be felt like a distant earthquake growing in rage as he closed in on them. "My queen, facing him may not be wise. He is powerful beyond measure, chained in Tartarus for an age and surely mad from his imprisonment."

 

"I will not allow a sister to fall to a titan," Hippolyta declared defiantly. "She has stood up for us in this world, given us a voice when we would have been dismissed. Also any harm to her and he will be broken. We will need Superman's aid to fight Ares."

 

Menalippe fell silent, accustomed to seeing her queen displaying such defiance. She would not be deterred from her course and so the healer surrendered without further protest, "Go with Gaea, your highness."

 

"Keep her safe Menalippe," Hippolyta instructed, lowering her lips to Lois' cheek and giving the girl a kiss of maternal affection.

 

"I will die before he harms her," Menalippe stated without hesitation and found herself surprised by how much she meant it.

 

****

 

Standing almost twenty five feet tall, his body covered with what was ancient Grecian armour, his misshaped features were hidden behind a full faced helmet. Ixion, prisoner of the wheel smashed a massive fist into the top of the police car that slammed into his side in an effort to stop the carnage he was causing in middle of the street. The metal buckled, killing instantly the two policemen inside, crushed in a moment of exquisite pain before everything went black. On either side of him, the mortals with their fire sticks, hurled their lead pellets at him and little to slow down the titan. The pellets bounced off his tough hide, grey from centuries of imprisonment in the sunless realms like rain. Growling at them in indignant range, he swatted them away like flies, watching with little emotion as their bodies slammed through the window of the building flanking him.

 

The screams of the frightened were music to his ears and he watched with delight as bystanders on the street, scattered in all directions, watching and pointing, scurrying into their homes, closing their doors as if that would help if he chose to pursue them, which he did not. The daughter of Ares had given him a mission and though the attack by these flea-like humans was entertaining, Ixion had a duty to carry out and that was to crush the skull of the champion's female between his fingers tips before the night was out.

 

The whump whump whump sound of air above him made Ixion look up into sky to see a flying chariot filled with mortals spying his progress through the street. Grinning, his inches long serrated teeth glistened as his lips whetted with anticipation at the bloodshed to come, caused screams to come from any who saw it. Bending over, he picked up an already upturned vehicle, crushed and twisted previously by him like it was paper and hurled into the air. Watching with bemusement, he saw the flying chariot attempted to retreat only to meet its fate when the collision turned the sky alive with colour from the resulting fire ball.

 

As the splendid rainfall of fire and debris teemed around him, he looked back and saw the carnage left behind and felt relish at being able to carry out the war god's work so effectively. Buildings burned, bodies crushed and rendered, the gruesome evidence of murder left in his wake and the sweet scent of destruction was so heady, he needed to take a breath as the smell rolled over him with a gust of wind.

 

Suddenly Ixion became aware of something else, the sound of a gale intensifying in its ferocity. Casting his gaze along the road, he saw something else approaching, its speed so swift that it left a whirlwind behind it traversed the distance between them. He had no more time to register this odd occurrence when he saw the humans emerging from the roof tops of their hopes, through the open windows, pointing at the sky, cheering and clapping as if salvation had come at last.

 

"Look its Superman!" A boy shouted, his eyes bright as he gaped at the blue, red streak approaching.

 

"Who is this...." He hadn't completed the sentence when he was struck so hard in the chest that Ixion was ripped from the ground and send sprawling through the air as if Zeus himself had designed to come down from Olympus to bear judgement upon him again. A roar of jubilation followed in the wake of the assault and Ixion felt rage and hatred as they clapped and cheered his attacker. It rose over the sound of rushing wind a moment earlier and he became aware before he landed of a man clad in red and blue.

 

Clark watched as the creature flew through the air and landed hard with enough momentum behind him to dig a groove through main Street Metropolis before he came to a stop, unearthing chunks of street and dirt. With the monster down, Clark didn't waste any time and resumed his assault, not wishing to give Ixion time enough to recover and launch his own attack. In the blink of an eye, he was standing over the fallen titan before he pulled back his fist and landed a hard right cross that slammed Ixion into deeper into the shattered concrete. Clark continued the barrage, hammering him into the ground relentlessly, determined to put an end to this creature's destructive reign of terror.

 

Even as he closed in to Metropolis, he saw what Ixion had done, the people he had murdered in the name of the war god that Clark had left Diana and Bruce to deal with. Knowing what Lois meant to him, Diana and Bruce had told him to go and while he had not refused, he was also determined to end this fight quickly so that he could get back in time to help them. It did not sit right with him that he had left them but Bruce was wise enough to know he'd be little use to them if he was worrying about this monster reaching Lois before he could.

 

Ixion took the blows, each one causing the ground to shudder, the punches thrown so fast that each one create a sonic boom until his ears were ringing with a sound akin to Zeus own thunderbolts being hurled to Earth from Olympus. However, he had been imprisoned for eons, chained to the wheel in the deepest pits of Tartarus. Pain was something he was inured to and he had already been the sport of the gods once, he would not surrender to it again. Ares had allowed him this reprieve to redeem himself, he would not waste it.

 

Lying in wait as the jackhammer blows continued, Ixion knew better than anyone else, how to be patient.

 

Clark only stopped punching when he saw Ixion had gone still. Pausing to see if the creature was done, Clark had plans of taking it to the middle of nowhere and leaving it there until he could decide what was to be done with it. He expected the Amazons might have some idea of how to chain this being permanently but for right not, his goal was to protect Metropolis and help Diana and Bruce fight the creature's master whose plan meant the fiery destruction of all life on the planet.

 

Distracted by his internal ruminations, he missed seeing the beast come suddenly to life to swing its thick fist in retaliation. Ixion moved faster than Clark would have credited the being and the blow that struck him, was delivered with deadly force and accuracy. It impacted against his chest, propelling him through the air like the artillery of a catapult, into the facade wall of an apartment building. Clark slammed into it like a wrecking ball, smashing through one wall and then another and yet another, drawing cries of shock and fear from the people living in the place and still kept going. Destroying home after home until he finally smashed through the ceiling and ended up on the other side of the building on top of parked car. The vehicle was pulverized into the crater he created by the impact.

 

As he lay there, dazed, Clark felt another sensation running through him, one that mingled with the taste of salt on his lips. Pain.

 

He felt pain. It took him a moment to register the feeling because it had been a while since he'd last experienced it. Magic, Clark thought to himself with a frown. Magic always made him vulnerable and Diana with her gods, definitely existed in that realm. Groaning slightly as he tried to sit up, he ignored it because right now, he couldn't let it slow him down. Wiping the blood from his split lip, Clark could only focus on one thing and that was stopping Ixion from harming anyone else. Using his x-ray vision, his eyes scanned the last place Ixion had been and felt a surge of concern when he saw the creature gone.

 

Fortunately, he did not have long to find out where it went.

 

Ixion landed on Clark like a falling boulder, with such tremendous force it was as if Clark had just had the Empire State Building dropped on his head. Beneath them, cracked bitumen and concrete heaved in protest before finally giving way abruptly, sending them both plunging through the newly created hole. Huge chunks of road and dirt followed them all the way down before the duo landed on subway tracks, raining debris over them in an uneven cascade. Scrambling to his knees, Clark shook his head, trying to gain his equilibrium when he saw the titan getting up to his feet first, his massive bulk barely fitting inside the subway tunnel, his monstrous head scraping against the roof

 

"Give up Son of Krypton," Ixion rumbled, his voice sounding as brutal as his action. "Bow to the will of Ares, let him have his war. Let what must be, take place. I have fought gods before and the outcome was not to my liking. Yield and I will make your end painless."

 

"Well I'm not fighting a god, just you," Clark hissed and shot forward, smashing both fists into Ixion's sternum, sending him flying up the length of the passage when suddenly he detected the sound of voices, of machinery moving fast and drawing closer, approaching from beyond where Ixion had landed. A subway train! His mind quickly deduced. Damn , he cursed his lack of foresight. I should have got him the hell out of here!

 

Knowing what kind of menace Ixion could cause to the unsuspecting occupants of that approaching train, Clark was already moving into action.

 

Unfortunately, Ixion was already anticipating how the champion would react. His weakness was the same as all heroes, Ixion decided, the need to save those who were weaker even when such actions placed themselves at a disadvantage. Ixion swung around at the last moment before the son of Krypton could reach him and grabbed the man by the cape to swing him in the path of the oncoming train. While it would do no damage to him personally, Ixion was certain the chariot rumbling towards them would not fare as well.

 

Clark's body hit the front of the train carriage, buckling the metal like it was paper and obliterating most of the front carriage occupied by the train conductor. Thankfully the man had seen what was coming at him and left the compartment in time to escape injury. As he sped forward, imbedded in the twisted wreckage of steel and glass, Clark caught sight of Ixion running up the tracks, back to the fissure they had created to enter the subway. Grinning wildly in triumph, Ixion leapt into the air and escaped the tunnel back to the surface.

 

Lois, he thought frantically, the bastard's going after Lois!

 

Clark fought back the urge to go after him because he had more immediate concerns. Thanks to him, the train was now a runaway. All the controls to bring it to a stop had been destroyed along with the conductor's carriage. Inside the carriage, he could hear terrified voices as people caught on to what was happening and how much danger they were in. Crushing the surge of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him every time Clark was confronted with the possibility of losing Lois, he focussed his errant thoughts on the job at hand.

 

Ignoring the ache in his limbs, Clark turned around and faced the carriage head on, before bracing both hands against the thick steel, feeling the rumble of its power engines beneath the surface. Hovering in the air momentarily, he lowered himself carefully onto the tracks, causing the wooden boards between the rails to snap when they touched his feet. Clark had more than enough strength to stop this train but if he acted hastily without thought by simply planting his feet on the ground and acting as a barrier, the train would jack knife and kill everyone on board. No, he had long ago learnt from Bruce and later from his training with Jor-El that might was not always the answer.

 

Controlling his flight so that he wasn't putting his full weight against the ground, he allowed himself to be slid across the gravel, his feet sparking from the abrasion while exerting just enough strength to offer the speeding wheels resistance. The friction created flames around his feet and a trail of smoke led the way as the train gradually began to slow. This was fortunate because Clark could see the painted signs on the walls of the subway tunnel that indicated the approach of a station platform.

 

"Superman!" The train conducted hollered, leaning out a window from the nearest car to be heard. "We're reaching the Centennial Park Station!" The man warned.

 

"I know!" Clark yelled back. "Make everyone get into crash position!"

 

"Right!" The man answered and scurried back into the carriage, ordering everyone to do just that.

 

Digging his heels in deeper, he felt the gravel under foot scratching around his ankles as he was driven deeper into the ground. Hard pebble dirt gave way to soft earth, creating a dark furrow through the tunnel floor, flanked by broken wood and rail. The locomotive's wheels were screeching in protest, unable to fight against the force of one determined Kryptonian. He could hear the groan of the engines, the whine of metal against metal, wheel against track, coupled with the voice of terrified bystanders who had been caught in the middle of his battle with Ixion. Clark grit his teeth, determined to see all these innocents delivered to safety until the wind rushing at him began to die along with the locomotive's forward momentum.

 

After what seemed to be an eternity, the train came to a stop just shy of the Centennial Park platform.

 

Applause broke out from the folk on the platform at the spectacle of Superman stopping a runaway train, with people craning their necks to see down the tunnel to get a better view of what was happening. Clark ignored the attention, his x-ray vision scanning the interior to see if there were any seriously injured. Behind him, paramedics and emergency service workers, alerted by the rail authority were hurrying onto the platform, ready to deal with the situation.

 

“Thank God you were here Superman,” the train conductor declared after the man had disembarked the carriage and began ushering out the people who were able to leave the carriage towards the platform on their own two feet. As they filed past him, Clark was greeted by a chorus of appreciation from the survivors.

 

"Thank you Superman."

 

 

 

"God bless..."

 

 

 

"You saved us!"

 

 

The litany of gratitude would have continued if Clark had chosen to remain but he could not. He needed to get back to the surface and find Ixion . Ixion who was still out there and likely tearing a path of violence all the way to Lois.

 

 

"We'll take it from here Superman," one of the emergency crew's chief declared once Clark had ensured the train was not only stopped but safe. There had been a lot of damage to the mechanical works and Clark checked to make sure there were no leaks or ruptures that could ignite into a bigger problem.

 

"Thanks," he said quickly, meeting the man's gaze with a nod of thanks and once again feeling pride in the people of Metropolis who were more than capable of dealing with emergencies when he was not present.

 

Breaking into super speed as he flew away, those left behind were bathed in the gust of strong wind that always followed his departure. Clark flew up the length of the tunnel, above the halted train and sought out the fissure that he and Ixion had created to land in the subway to begin with. Emerging out of the fissure that cracked open the parking lot like an egg, Clark rose to street level and returned to the night air. Immediately, his super hearing sought out the tell tale cries of terror that would give away the monster's location.

 

He didn't have far to look and felt his jaw tighten in anger at the sight of the torn streets, the upturned cars and the trail of destruction left behind by Ixion's mindless violence. The path Ixion had taken looked like a battle field and Clark felt a surge of rage running through him at what this creature had done to his city. While not having the same gut wrenching connection to Gotham that Bruce had, Metropolis was Clark's home. It was really the place where Superman was born and to see his city in this state made enraged him.

 

Resolving to end this once and for all, Clark was a red and blue streak as he flew towards Ixion who was now surrounded by policemen who were attempting to stop the maniac from his acts of violence. The titan was in the process of hurling a bus full of people, no less, at the men who standing their ground in front of a beast they had no chance of defeating simply because it was their duty to. Clark was not going to let them pay the ultimate price for it, not them and certainly not the people in that bus, just like the people in the train earlier.

 

Speeding ahead faster than a speeding bullet (so the press liked to claim), Clark intercepted the vehicle amidst the screaming terror of those inside and caught the bus easily, keeping it from hitting the ground. Its occupants were probably going to take the brunt of the sudden stop but Clark couldn't help that. However, it was becoming increasingly clear that he needed to choose his battleground because there were too many other targets here for Ixion to use to distract him.

 

Clark set down the vehicle and shouted to the nearest cop when he lowered the bus onto its wheels and saw Ixion approaching for another assault. "Get everyone out of there!" He gestured to the bus, "and keep everyone away from us! He knows I won't let anyone be harmed."

 

"Gotcha Superman," the police officer answered, as he waved his comrades over to the bus. "You heard Superman! Clear the area."

 

With MPD mobilizing to evacuate the area behind him, Clark turned his attention back to Ixion who was moving on, laying waste to everything in his path as he continued towards Lois. Clark sucked in his breath and came to a realisation he had not wanted to reach but had little choice now. God help him he couldn't hold back. He'd gone through his life worrying about who he'd hurt with his strength but now, he had to lower those restraints and go against his conditioning because the titan had no such limitations. Rushing forward again, Clark overshot Ixion's present location in the middle of an intersection and stood in front of the monster, a proverbial line in the sand drawn to not let him any further.

 

"I will have her," Ixion rumbled in his direction before yanking out a traffic light post from the ground, trailing ripped cables dancing with energy and hurling it at the few bystanders who hadn't got clear yet. Clark deflected its path by a gust of super breath, sending the thing crashing into a wall, away from its intended victims, crumpling it out of shape and sending glass everywhere upon impact.

 

"You're having nothing!" Clark growled and flew at the titan, his cape trailing behind him as he gained speed. Closing the distance, he grabbed Ixion by the arm and kept going ahead, spiriting the creature away from the ground, limiting the menace he could cause. Ixion howled indignantly as he was swept off his feet and taken aloft, leaving rooftops beneath them as they soared into the air. The two combatants left behind the ruined street as Clark changed their battleground so no one else would get hurt.

 

“You cannot stop me Son of Krypton!!” Ixion bellowed as retaliated by battering Clark with multiple blows as they flew, his massive fist delivering a crushing assault on the Kryptonian’s ribs.

 

Clark felt every one of those punches and steeled himself against them as the landscape blurred beneath them. He ignored the pain, wanting nothing but to get the titan as far away from Lois and the rest of Metropolis as he could. Single minded in his determination, he ignored the blows, concentrating on maintaining flight when suddenly he caught a glint of something in his peripheral vision. He turned just in time to see Ixion brandishing what appeared to be a jagged piece of his armour.

 

He had barely time to react before the sharp piece of forged metal sank into the flesh beneath his ribs, through flesh and muscle. It was pain he had never experienced before and the cry that escaped him sounded almost alien. On reflex, he swatted away the titan and unwittingly lost his hold of the beast. As Clark reeled from the pain, he saw Ixion plunging through the clouds, hurtling towards the ground. However, at the moment Clark's own flight had gone askew as he clutched his side and felt warm blood running rivulets over his fingers.

 

His blood.

 

 

*****

 

From two streets away from Metropolis General Hospital, Hippolyta had paused with the rest of her Amazon sisters when she saw the Kryptonian flying across the sky with what looked to Ixion, the kin slayer. They had not progressed very far when something happened to halt them in mid flight. With the same shock and horror as her sisters, Hippolyta saw them falling to earth like dark stars. The son of Krypton had been harmed, this much she was able to ascertain from the way he was tumbling through the sky like a bird whose wing had been wounded. As it was, she knew from the panic in the city that the two had been battling fiercely, the children of two realms, the ancient ones of her beliefs and the new gods of the Earth. The ones who wore emblems such as Superman and lived mortal lives while bestowed with immortal power.

 

“He is hurt," Philipus observed beside her.

 

“Yes,” Hippolyta agreed, having watch Diana fly enough times in her youth to know when something was wrong even from this distance. “It is as I feared. Even if he were not made by Prometheus clay, he is vulnerable to an assault from a titan.”

 

“Should we go to him?” the Amazon general inquired, wanting to fight, disliking the notion of leaving the greatest battle of their age to the hands of others. “Perhaps he can tell us where Diana is.”

 

Hippolyta remained silent, trying not to be worry about her daughter who had vanished hours ago and the portents all indicated that something dark was afoot tonight, even if Ixion's presence weren't proof enough. This may well be the night of Ares’ end game and the final chance humanity had to prevent its complete annihilation. “We will go,” she nodded and started moving again, jogging at a brisk pace to the hotel where their weapons were waiting. The chaos created by Ixion had halted the city's usual means of travel throughout the city and Hippolyta found this was the most expedient way of getting anywhere quickly. "If the son of Krypton is truly fallen then it is up to us to stop Ixion.”

 

Philipus nodded, ready for the challenge, they all were. For three thousand years, the Amazons were the gate keepers to Doom’s Door on Themiscyra, keeping the evils of Tartarus from escaping into the world. A creature like the Kin slayer, they were more than accustomed to battling. “We will stop him or die trying.”

 

Hippolyta did not answer but it could well come to that.

 

******

 

Inside her, it grew like an inflating balloon, an overwhelming sense of dread and fear that nearly choked the breath from her lungs and made her drown in its thick, vile soup. She felt herself swimming against this dark tide, her limbs heavy from exhaustion. She couldn't see what was ahead, couldn't hear the sloshing that should have come with the movement through the viscous place and all the sensation in her world was the exhaustion that wanted to drag her to the depths of this abyss. It would be so easy to give up, so easy to let it sweep her down in the waiting arms of oblivion where she would feel nothing ever again.

 

However, Lois Lane seldom gave into anything that was easy.

 

In fact, easy bored her. Give in? It was beyond her to yield. Every molecule in her body was charged with defiance and sheer stubbornness. No, she would not give up, she would navigate this dark place and if there was no view for her to see, she would create one for herself. She had been born into this world fighting and she had sworn long ago, she would leave it the same way.

 

Ignoring the malaise that was clawing at her skin, Single minded that she was not finished, she forced herself to see the one thing in life was worth living for, that no matter what the obstacle, she had something waiting for her that she would not give up. That would not give up on her. Clark.

 

Even as she thought about him, the image of a flaming red S-shield drifted into view and Lois used that as her horizon.

 

No, she was not done. Not by a long shot.

 

*****

 

Lois Lane woke up with a start at the tremendous jolt that shuddered through the building.

 

She sat upright fully alert, noting the objects still teetering on the shelves and some that had actually hit the linoleum with a loud crash. Blinking twice as her drowsy senses struggled with the sudden overload of information, she scanned the room and found herself faced with the white walls of a hospital ward and a dozen other beds lined up along it. Another second elapsed and Lois realised she knew the people in those beds.

 

Perry, Jimmy, even Cat, what the hell was going on here? What was wrong with them? More importantly, she thought when she realised that she was one of these patients, what was wrong with her?

 

"What's going on?" She demanded loudly before realising that Menalippe was in the room and coming quickly to her side.

 

"Calm yourself," Menalippe said gently, touching her shoulder the way one would soothe an excited horse. "You have been ill."

 

"What?" Lois blinked, trying to remember what had happened and finding her memories foggy. Ill, she had been ill? When did that happen? "What's wrong with everyone and what was that an earth quake a minute ago?" She demanded.

 

"No," Menalippe shook her head, her eyes filling with sorrow. "That was Superman."

 

Chapter Sixteen:

Unleashed

 

 

Her breath caught.

 

The impact had caused a ripple through the land like a stone being dropped into a still pond. However, the earth did not have the fluidity of liquid and where the ripples would have been smoothed out in water, there were great rips through the soil and grass radiating in all directions. The force of it had uprooted trees, magnificent specimens that now lay across the ground, crushing their leaves beneath their weight. Lamp posts that were still standing managed to do so by strained cables while others had not been so lucky, threw sparks of electricity in all directions.

 

The scene looked like the aftermath of a great battle when the war cry was done and all that was left was to pick up the bodies of the fallen. Except on this field there was only two combatants and she could see them not in the landscape of destruction before her. A passerby might be forgiven for thinking he had stumbled into the scene of some ancient battle. The group of women who stood on the fissured section of walkway that ran through Hayes Park, seemed like they had stepped out of from the pages of a history book. Clad in Grecian armour over their clothes, they carried lances, swords and bows, wearing helmets and breast plates.

 

"Do you think he is still alive?" Philipus inquired of her queen as the distant sounds of sirens approached.

 

"I pray he is," Hippolyta answered because inwardly, she didn't know if there were enough of them to stop the beast if the man of steel were dead. "We must find him sisters," Hippolyta told her entourage. "Diana would wish us to aid him."

 

As she spoke her daughter's name, Hippolyta's stoic features wavered slightly and Philipus knew the worry that Queen kept carefully concealed from her Amazon sister. Diana was the first child born to Amazons and while she was loved by all of them, she was loved no greater than by her mother, the Queen. The little Princess had given them hope when their existence had become barren and while there were other children brought to Themiscyra since, Diana was the first and always the most cherished.

 

"I'm sure Diana is fine, my Queen," Philipus rested a hand on her monarch's shoulder.

 

Hippolyta threw a sidelong glance at her general and squeezed her hand in gratitude. "She is our champion," Hippolyta answered bravely, "she will do what must be done."

 

Suddenly the ground beneath them rumbled slightly and Hippolyta's hand instinctively went for her sword as the rumbling drew closer, over the rise of small hill in front of them. "Stay behind him," she ordered the others as she hurried forward.

 

"My Queen!" Philipus called out after her, not liking this at all.

 

Hippolyta crossed over the torn, green lawn, careful to avoid sots of earth that had been torn out due to the abrupt landing of Metropolis' champion and his enemy. The clumps of soil had begun to shudder as she approach the crest of the hill and saw something large getting to his feet.

 

Ixion was on his hands and knees, shaking his massive head to clear away the disorientation from his fall to earth. At her approach, his head tilted sharply in her direction and she took a step back as she saw his meaty fists clench, pushing himself off the ground. "Amazon..."

 

"Ixion," Hippolyta declared. "I see the War God had let you off your leash or is this just a temporary reprieve? I imagine that once he is done with you, he'll return you to your wheel in Tartarus."

 

"NEVER!" He growled and smashed both fists against the ground, causing a shockwave so violent that Hippolyta lost her balance, struggling to stay on her feet. "I will grind your bones into pulp and feed it to the dogs when I am done with you Amazon, just as I have done to the Patriarch world's champion."

 

With that, he came rushing at her, his massive bulk moving with more speed than she gave him credit. However, this was not the first beast she had faced. For three thousand years, she and her sister had kept Doom's Door sealed, fighting whatever madness that sought to escape it dark confines. Running forward, she somersaulted over the beast, using his own frame to her advantage, landing on his shoulder. Plunging her sword down, the Amazon blade designed to harm creatures of Tartarus sunk in deep.

 

Ixion howled in agony, grabbing Hippolta like he was snatching a rag doll and flung her away. "I will rip you to pieces whore!"

 

"Archers!" Philipus barked as a phalanx of arrows flew from the taut bows of the Amazons who had taken up position in pursuit of their queen. The arrows rain down on the beast as Philipus went to Hippolyta's aid, her heart pounding fast at the the how violently the queen had been cast aside.

 

"Your highness!" Philipus skidded to her knees, finding Hippolyta lying face down in the dirt, unmoving.

 

At the sound of a familiar voice, the Queen came to life, shaking her head to clear it as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees. "I am still here Philipus," she said weakly, turning her head to the bellowing cry of Ixion as he fought off the arrows being shot at him. "Though for how long I am uncertain."

 

"Is it Ixion? The prisoner of the wheel?" Philipus asked as the monster tore the arrows from his flesh, momentarily distracted by far from defeated.

 

"It is," she nodded, strands of dark hair falling over her face as she saw the titan rage, despite her Amazon sisters trying their best to gain some advantage and failing. "And without the help of a god," Hippolyta said to Philipus, "I fear we will not be enough to stop him."

 

******

 

"You should not be here," Menalippe protested as Lois stepped on to the ruined landscape of Hayes Park, ignoring the devastation around her to find ground zero of this catastrophe. "Ares knows what you are to your Superman, if Ixion sees you here, there will be no stopping him from killing you."

 

Lois ignored the shudder of fear that ran through her at that statement and didn't stop her advance across the torn greenery. Ever since she understood that tremor was caused by Clark, Lois had been able to entertain no other thought. Damn near fighting her way out of the hospital and to some degree, Menalippe as well, Lois had grabbed the first cab that was brave enough to be on the street on a day like this and ordered him to Hayes Park. When he had rambled something about it being too dangerous and something going down in the area, Lois had responded by emptying all the cash she had in her purse into his front seat, ending any further argument.

 

Less than ten minutes later, the cab had deposited them as close to Hayes Park as it could get. Police was directing traffic away from the scene, people were hurrying out of the part, trying to avoid the rampage of the monster that had left a trail of destruction through downtown Metropolis until Superman had come and borne it away. Until something happened that brought their saviour crashing down to Earth.

 

As she ran into the park, managing to avoid the police barricades that cordoned the area from the public, Lois thought of all the times that she had fallen. Clark had always been there to catch her. Always. But who caught him when he fell? No one. The world saw their Superman as invulnerable but Lois had held him in her arms when he was broken and bleeding. She knew that he could feel pain, that his flesh would sustain wounds. He was as mortal as she and all she could think of while she was running through the ripped up ground of the park, that he was lying somewhere dying.

 

Alone.

 

"I don't care," she snapped to Menalippe when Lois paused long enough to take off her heels that were leaving unnoticeable divots across the fissured lawns. "He's hurt, I know it."

 

Closing in on the scene of the impact, Lois saw Menalippe staring in the near by distance at the arrows flying through the air, like a flare telling them where Ixion was.

 

"My sisters are there," Menalippe declared, recognising the voices emanating from the combat taking place not far away. The ground was shaking from Ixion's massive hulk doing battle. Even now, she and Lois could see the beast standing tall over the trees and bushes. "Lois, we should go before the beast sees you."

 

"No," Lois shook her head, refusing to entertain the notion despite needing to crush the sharp stab of fear that lanced through her at the sight of creature fighting the Amazons. Even though she could not see Hippolyta or her sisters from here, Lois was able to catch a glimpse of the titan. He stood nearly as tall as some of the large trees that hadn't been uprooted by the impact and was so very close, she was certain he could see them both. However, fear of the monster was nothing in comparison to her fears for Clark. That alone forced her to stay the course.

 

"I'm not going anywhere until I find Cl...Superman," she corrected herself and turned away from the battle, forging ahead to the source of this disaster.

 

Jogging ahead, Lois forced herself to move faster, ignoring the dirt and debris under her bare feet as she scrambled over upended trees and went around park benches. Hayes Park had become one big obstacle course but Lois let nothing stop her. She was still weak from the apple Eris had tried to poison her with but Lois was driven by her fierce desire to find Clark, no matter what.

 

She had to find him. She just had to.

 

Fighting her way through the leafy branches of a felled cypress tress, Lois emerged on the other side fo the crushed foliage to find herself at the edge of the massive crater which marked the epicenter of the destruction that had torn Hayes Park apart. She had little time to survey the scene as the soil beneath her gave way and the next thing Lois knew, she was tumbling down its conclave side, a ball of dirt, flaying limbs and rapidly disintegrating three hundred dollar suit.

 

"Lois!" Menalippe called after her in alarm as the Amazon watched in dismay as her her charge rolled down the side of the enormous ditch and hurried down after her.

 

Lois came to a stop in a heap, coughing out the dust that choked her lungs and could do nothing for a few seconds but remain there in the dirt, on her hands and knees as she recovered her senses from her disorientated stated. However, it took only a glimpse of something red and blue to shock her back to clarity in record time.

 

"CLARK!" Lois near screamed and didn't care who heard her as she scrambled to feet and ran across the muddy ground to drop to her knees again at his side.

 

"Oh God Clark," she gasped, her lips quivering and her hands shaking as she took in the state he was in.

 

Clark Kent...Superman...was lying face down in the earth. His red cape was covered in mud and dirt. He looked so still that for a moment Lois feared the worse and that possibility nearly paralysed her with anguish. For a few seconds, she dared not even touch him out of dread that her worst fears were realised. However, Lois Lane was not about shirking away from the truth. No matter how much it might pain her to face it, she had to know for sure.

 

Reaching for him, Lois grabbed hold of him arm and rolled him onto her lap. Cradling his head in her arms, Lois tried to be strong for Clark as she stared into the face of the man she loved more than anything in the world. He seemed to pale, so vulnerable that Lois felt tears crisscrossing her dirt covered face. He was still breathing but barely.

 

"Smallville," she whispered unaware that not so long ago, he begged the exact same way when he sat at her bedside in the hospital. "You gotta wake up for me. You know, man of steel and everything? Can't be doing your image any good for you be slacking off like this when the big, crazy monster is terrorising the city, right?" She brushed the dirt from his cheek and blinked away the tears when he didn't stir at her touch. "Please Clark," she kissed his lips, "please wake up for me. I don't know how to exist without you."

 

Eyes travelling down his form, she felt her carefully crafted mask of strength begin to crumble when she sighted the blood wound beneath his ribs. As always, it chilled her to the core whenever she saw him wounded. Even more so ow that the world knew him as Superman. The wound looked deep and worse yet, possibly fatal. If she didn't know that it was utterly pointless, she might have considered taking him to the hospital but that would be no help to him.

 

What Clark needed was the sun and with the night above them, he had no chance of healing.

 

It doesn't matter, she told herself as she draped his arm over her shoulder. She was getting him help.

 

Menalippe finally reached her and as Lois saw her, let out of sight of gratitude for the woman's presence. "Menalippe! Help me!" Lois demanded as she tried to help Clark get back on his feet, "we've got to get him away from here. He's hurt badly!"

 

Menalippe did not need to see his injury to know that. The deathly pallor of his skin and his unconscious state was indication enough of his grave wound. Without argument, the Amazon took up the burden along with Superman's lover, dragging his arm over her shoulder to lift him from the dirt. "He will live Lois," Menalippe assured her, trying to keep up her hope for her love's survival. "Do not worry."

 

"But she should worry Amazon," Ixion's brittle voice sneered at them like a rumble of thunder from the sky. Both Lois and Menalippe eyes widened with horror as they saw the titan standing at the top of the crater staring down at them like some dark god about to smite them down.

 

Lois tried not to let her fear show as he stared directly at her, no doubt determining who she was to Clark. The sheer terror of him came up on her so suddenly she felt her heart clench so hard it almost hurt. Refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid, Lois turned her mind to doing what she did during all times of crisis, focus on the business at hand, no matter how futile it was.

 

Struggling to move faster, Lois was determined to get Clark as far away as she could even as the monster began to make his way into the crater, closing in on them. They were never going to make it out alive, she knew that as she saw Ixion approach and apart of her wanted to weep at the death that was coming, at the life she and Clark would never know together. However, sheer defiance kept her moving, refusing to believe that this was for nothing even if Clark was a dead weight in her arms.

 

If it was the last thing she did in this life, Lois Lane would not give up.

 

It amused Ixion that the two women were trying to escape with the wounded hero of the Patriarch's world. He felt a hint of admiration at their determination but it was fleeting. The war god had given him a duty and Ixion would carry it out to avoid being returned to the great wheel in Tartarus. Crossing the distance between them in two large strides, he prepared to deliver a killing blow when suddenly, the Amazon broke away and charged him in some ludicrous expression of courage. He swatted her aside with barely a thought as to where her fragile body went after she had flown out of his sight.

 

"Menalippe!" Lois cried out as she saw the woman flying across the space within the crater, coming to a hard landing near the foot of the slope leading out of it. Menalippe landed and did not move again and as Lois clutched Clark's arm, she didn't know if the woman was still breathing or not.

 

"Come on that you bastard!" She hissed, glaring at him in outrage. "Get it over with!"

 

"What will he do when I dash your brains against the earth I wonder?" Ixion laughed, amused by her feisty spirit. "Do you think he will weep or will he find another warm body to console himself with?"

 

Lois stared Ixion in the eye, holding her ground, her eyes burning with fury as her voice escaped her. "He'll kill you," she said venomously. "That's what he'll do. He'll kill you."

 

And even as she said it, Lois knew if Clark survived and she did not, that was surely what he would do.

 

"You are his love," the monster laughed derisively. "His guilt will tear him apart and I will have defeated him without needing to lift another finger against him."

 

Superman chose to lift his head at that moment.

 

He hurt. Even as he took breath, he could feel the raspy trail of dirt in his nostrils all the way to his lungs. While the foreign matter in his lungs did not little to harm him, in his weakened state, he felt it. The pain in his side was blinding, it radiated throughout his flesh, reminding him of his mortality but it was inconsequential next to the warmth of the woman trying her best to keep him on his feet, to keep alive even though she should have left him and saved herself.

 

But his Lois would not do that.

 

Her love for him was a power in itself and as much as the world relied on Superman to save it, Clark Kent relied on Lois Lane to keep him strong. Like now.

 

"You're right about that," Clark spoke through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain as his voice escaped him with a sinister note of menace that belied the fury behind his blue eyes, now almost black. This creature had come to his home, murdered innocent people, damn near killed him and now threatened Lois.

 

She was the line in the sand Ixion should not have crossed.

 

"You're not going to get the chance to lift a finger to do anything else against me," Clark spoke in a low voice as he stepped away from Lois, not looking at her as he faced Ixion for what was going to be the last time. His cape billowed around him as if his fury had become something tangible, arising from him as if it had no master.

 

Without uttering another word, Clark unleashed his fury, sweeping aside in one instant all the restraint he had forced himself to endure over the years for fear of the consequences. His heat vision blasted out of his eyes like an exploding furnace, hitting Ixion full in the face. The intense heat enveloped Ixion like he was bathed in lava, melting the monster's helmet around his skull. The titan staggered backwards screaming, as he tried to tear away the molten iron fused to his flesh. Ignoring Ixion's pain, Clark knew that what injury Ixion was enduring wasn't fatal.

 

"Clark," Lois gasped, her mouth agape with horror at what Ixion was enduring. "Oh my God, Clark." She didn't know whether to be horrified or vindicated. In the end, she was satisfied with throwing her arms around him and embracing him though she was mindful that he was still injured. For a brief moment, Ixion's screams, the near death they had both nearly experience all seemed very far away as she felt his strong arms, holding her.

 

"Lois," he took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, trying to imprint the taste of her lips on his brain. "I have to go," he glanced at Ixion. "I need to finish this. Bruce and Diana, they're out there fighting something worse than this thing."

 

"Clark you're hurt," she said glancing down at the wound. "You need help..." she stuttered.

 

"I know," he nodded, acknowledging his wounds but able to do little else because the fight was more than just Ixion rampaging through Metropolis. It was Ares, wanting to destroy the entire world with nuclear Armageddon, the only kind of masterpiece a god of war could aspire. "But I have to go."

 

Lois nodded, wiping her tears, kissing him back once more before she answered, "you go. Do what you have to. Be safe for me Smallville."

 

Clark nodded, "I love you Lane," he smiled at her.

 

"Don't you forget it Superman," Lois tried to smile back as she stepped away from him so that he could leave her to be the hero the world needed again.

 

Clark gave her one last look before he leapt into the air, a gust of wind blowing over her as he soared.

 

She watched him fly towards Ixion, watched him grab the mad titan still in the throes of agony, blinded and bellowing with fury and outrage, his massive arms flaying about, clawing at his face as he tried to recover from Clark's final assault upon him.

 

Lois watched the red and blue streak disappear into the night sky, taking the creature that had terrorized Metropolis with him.

 

Chapter Seventeen:

Sacrifice

 

….harlequin’s smile.”

 

For the second time, the ominous warning of a harlequin plaguing his dreams and his future surfaced.

 

Bruce Wayne had no idea what any of it meant but he did remember the grotesque parody of a smile appearing in his hallucinations when Deimos had attempted to break him. Now, Eris was dangling the same threat in his face. Even when all this was over? Or maybe she knew something that he didn’t and was simply using it to her advantage. Maybe, she had no real power, except what she could incite, taking advantage of man’s own weaknesses.

 

“Diana, we need to move on,” he ignored the goddess who had sent Clark running after Lois because of the beast Ixion.

 

“Agreed Bruce,” Diana replied, preparing to use Harmonia’s Talisman once more. “Our work is done here Goddess, unless you would dare stop me and face the same wrath as your brother.” Her blue eyes ignited with challenge.

 

“You will find,” Eris hissed as the smoke around them thickened, “that I am not so easily defeated daughter of Hippolyta, your alliance of the flesh with this mortal has made you weak, tainted your purity. How can you be champion when you lust for men?”

 

Diana bristled at the accusation but was unable to deny that she didn’t not feel warmly towards men now but not for the reasons Eris so crassly extolled.

 

Since arriving in the Patriarch’s World, she had made two men her allies. Kal, whose abilities far exceeded her own yet behaved as if he could have been Amazon born. They shared the same views of the world, that people no matter who they were, had good in them, that it was worth drawing out if possible. He understood how out of step she felt with his world and had been a teacher helping her understand it. Instinctively, Diana knew that he would be her friend as long as they lived, that it was something for the ages.

 

And then there was Bruce.

 

Whom she did not understand. Grief and pain had blighted his life but it had also transformed into something strong, something no god could envision or considered when fashioning man from clay. He bore no power, no bloodline shared by his contemporaries in the past. This was no demi-god, no Hercules nor Perseus but Hera, the strength of him. The singular, dedicated will that drove him left her in awe. She did not know if this was the love that Kal felt for his Lois but with Bruce, Diana could understand its power. She might very well love this man, though she suspected, it was not in either of their fates for her to possess him. They would be always belong to each other but would they be together? She doubted it.

 

“Diana, she’s just trying to stall you, we’ve got two more silos to get too, she knows we don’t have a lot of time.” Bruce’s words cut through her thoughts and reminded her of their mission.

 

Suddenly, Colonel Trevor and his men thundered into the launch room, having dealt with Hayes, their weapons drawn, ready to fire in the face of this new threat. The room filled with cameras had shown them that there was an intruder present that was none of the heroes who had averted the near disaster of a short time ago.

 

“Stay back!” Diana ordered but it was too late as they opened fire.

 

The bullets exploded loudly out of their barrels, a deadly barrage aimed towards the goddess who had been using her powers of manipulation to delay the Amazon Princess from usurping the next phase in her father’s plans. They had no power to hurt a child of Olympus but Diana knew that a goddess accustomed having men worship her in the past, would not take kindly to anyone firing upon her like she was some common criminal.

 

“HOW DARE YOU!” Eris roared as the soldier’s bullets halted in midair before a sweep of her arm, allowed them to fall to the ground harmlessly.

 

“Hold your fire!” Trevor shouted, realizing that their guns may be useless. “Grenades!”

 

“Get your men out of here,” Bruce ordered and slipped a phosphorous bomb from his belt, tossing at the goddess to distract her from unleashing her worst on the soldiers who had no idea what they were dealing with. The explosion was blinding as it was meant to be but not harmful. Eris let out a cry of indignation, her fury at these pathetic attempts to harm her evidence by the reddening glow of eyes.

 

“You dare strike a god!” She bellowed and suddenly, the room was hit with a blast of cold so strong, it penetrated the Kevlar around his body as if he was wearing nothing. Almost as if he was dropped in liquid nitrogen, Bruce felt his limbs cramp up, his spine straightening in discomfort as the blizzard around them began to shatter instruments. He was driven to his knees while Trevor and his men were frozen in place, having gotten no further than the doorway before the cold had overtaken them.

 

Diana was already launching herself at Eris, determined to stop the goddess. Streaking across the small space like a bullet, she slammed into Eris in mid sternum, shoving Ares daughter against the wall and then through it. Wasting no time, she continued the attack, more than ready to deal with this goddess as she had dealt with her brother not long ago.

 

Eris roared in fury as she landed on the ground of the adjoining room, stunned but unhurt. Eris was not accustomed to physical combat and had been taken by surprise but she was a goddess and it was time this Amazon upstart understood that. As Diana flew towards her, Eris back handed the incoming Princess so hard, she was thrown back like a rag doll.

 

“You will not kill me as you did my brother!” Eris growled. “This is not Tartarus and we are not equals!”

 

Diana had been thrown backwards, slamming and shattering the instruments on top of the control panel she landed on. Beneath her, the cold had kept the electronics from sparking as Diana rolled off it and landed on her hands and knees. Like Kal, pain was something that she seldom felt. The gifts from the gods had made her stronger than most of her Amazon sisters. Groaning as she clutched her side, feeling the flaring pain that came from broken ribs, Diana clenched her fists and started to get up when she felt a gloved hand on her forearm, halting her.

 

“Diana.”

 

Bruce had crawled to her, his cape and cowl covered in eyes, the exposed part of his face revealing his skin was turning blue. He was shaking as he looked up at her and a surge of horror filled her at how near death he seemed.

 

“Br... Batman,” she corrected herself before she inadvertently exposed his identity. Not that it mattered much since Trevor and his men were in the same state as Bruce, freezing to death quickly. She saw the icicles forming around him and knew that even with his exceptional endurance, he was but mortal. He could not survive this temperature much longer. He and Trevor’s men were being encased in the icy blizzard that Eris had unleashed upon them and they could not last long under such extreme temperature.

 

“Diana,” Bruce spoke through gritted teeth, the words escaping him in a raspy, shuddering demand. “You have to go now. You have to stop the other missiles. She’s doing this to stall you! So that they can be launched!”

 

“But I cannot leave you!” Diana declared, anguished at the choice she was being forced to make. She knew her duty, knew that she had a destiny to fulfill, to halt the onslaught of Ares before he reduced the world to ash but she also knew that to leave him was let him die. How could she? “I...cannot.” She glared at Eris who was approaching, dark smoke swirling about her like a cloud of malevolence, her face glorying with triumph at manipulating Diana with the same trap she had placed Kal in earlier. How had it come to this?

 

“Diana,” Bruce’s gauntlet tightened his grip around her arm, steeling himself to her worried expression. “You wanted to know what love between men and women is like,” he spoke firmly, his lips were turning blue, the cold starting to turn his cells into ice. “It's like this. It’s not pretty Diana, its pain and its anguish and its sacrifice. It’s being able to go on when you know that you’ll be alone, what little bit of joy that love gave is all that you’ll ever have but that moment Diana, that moment is what’s going to see you through, do you understand? You can live on that moment forever.”

 

“Yes,” she nodded. She did understand and he was right. She had to go. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the lips, giving him the heat of her flesh for an all too brief moment. This was not a kiss stolen but one she gave him from her heart, for one who occupied a new place in it. It was his place and even if she lost him, she would hold the memory of their brief love in her heart forever.

 

“Wait for me if you can my love,” she whispered and then pulled away.

 

Bruce answered her with a nod as he watched disengaged his grip and stand upright, her stance every much the warrior going into battle. She faced Eris with defiance and spoke with words dripping with challenge, no hint of surrender or the heartache he knew she must have felt at having to leave him. He fell in love with her then, hopelessly and completely. If he died today, he’d die going into the next world without regrets and infinitely proud.

 

“You will delay me no longer Goddess,” Diana said, the word dripping with contempt as she unhooked Harmonia’s talisman from her belt and flashed the face of it at Eris, bathing her in its glow as it came alive in her hands. “Take me to your master!” She demanded, though Bruce suspected that the talisman took its cue from Diana on a more metaphysical level rather than the spoken word.

 

“YOU WILL NOT STOP HIM…..!” Eris screeched in fury, knowing that her attempt to prevent Diana from leaving had failed.

 

The glow of the talisman became a blinding flash of light that made Bruce clamp his eyes shut, however, he knew that when he opened them again, Diana would be gone.

 

*****

 

When the blindingly light vanished, Diana found herself in yet another steel room not unlike the one she had just left. Somewhat larger in size than the launch bay she had left Bruce, there was a thick glass panel making up one section of wall. Looking through it, Diana’s blood chilled and realized that she was staring into the enclosure where man’s deadliest weapon was being contained. She could see the snub nose of the weapons, protruding half out of the earth, the doors above them open, allowing them escape into the sky.

 

Turning her attention back to the room itself, she noted that this one was filled with solders and men in white coats that did not look like warriors, who barely noted her presence at first. At their feet, completely ignored, was a dead body on the floor, lying at the base of an instrument panel that bore great resemblance to the one Steven Hayes had tried to activate before she, Kal and Bruce had intervened. Blood and viscera was splattered across the floor, while the gun still clenched in the man’s hands, told Diana how his fate had been met. Was this what would have happened to Steven Hayes had they not acted?

 

Was this his reward after he had turned the key? It would appear so since the key in this panel was turned fully clockwise.

 

Meanwhile, the men who did not look like soldiers, raced back and forth across the remaining instruments, their fingers moving furiously over keyboards, while others had opened the metal panel, trying to access the wires beneath them. The urgency and fear etched over their faces was palpable as was the tension in the air.. They were working furiously, trying to reach an end she that might be beyond them already, their desperation marking their every move.

 

“Кто вы??*” Someone shouted at her in a language Diana did not understand. It was a voice full of authority and demand. “KЧто вы здесь делаете?*”

 

Diana turned around to find herself facing a group of soldiers, lead by a woman wearing a uniform not unlike Colonel Trevor’s with slight differences to distinguish the nation it represented. Like Philipus, Diana thought immediately and was somewhat surprised that she appeared to be in command, in charge of men it seemed. Perhaps the Patriarch’s World was not as backward as she believed. The woman was aiming a gun in her direction, supported by the three male soldiers who flanked her protectively.

 

“Please,” Diana spoke in English for that was the only language of the Patriarch’s World that she had thus far learned. “I mean you no harm,” she implored, hoping a sister would be less hostile than a man. “What has happened here?” She asked, though she suspected she had most of the answer already.

 

At Diana’s words in English, the woman’s expression showed puzzlement and was soon joined by the men with her, who jabbered in the same tongue Diana did not understand. They were gesturing with the barrel of their weapons towards her costume, as if they recognized it. As they spoke, Dian recognized, in their string of words, one phrase at least. The phrase ‘Wonder Woman’.

 

Diana knew of the title the media had bestowed her within the Patriarch’s World, just as they had done to Kal. Although she thought it somewhat silly, if these people recognized her by it, then she would more than welcome its use to help her cause now. “Yes,” she nodded in confirmation. “I am Wonder Woman!”

 

The woman looked racked with indecision but glanced at the men working at the panels before her face showed her reaching some kind of conclusion. For once, Diana was actually grateful for her celebrity and hoped his woman understood that she wished to help.

 

“I am Captain Natalia Ulyanov, Wonder Woman,” she finally introduced herself.. What are you doing here in Russia?” She asked in perfect if somewhat heavily accented English.

 

Diana did not mince words. If the situation was as desperate as she suspected then time was of the essence. “I believe that there is danger that someone is attempting to launch your weapons to precipitate a full scale war with other nations of your world. I have just come from America where one of their soldiers had attempted to launch their weapons of war. We were able to halt him in time,” she explained but surmised that here, they had not been so successful. “Has a weapon been launched?” She asked quickly, certain that one had but needing confirmation.

 

Captain Ulyanov’s eyes widened in shock at Diana’s narration of events and her gaze shifted to the dead man. “This is Major Andrei Nikolaevich. Five minutes ago, he launched a missile into the atmosphere, an SS-18 Satan, in bound for the United States, specifically Gotham City.” Her face showed her horror at what was to happen without needing any further elaboration.

 

Gotham? Diana’s eyes narrowed. No doubt an act of petty vengeance either by Ares himself or Eris in retaliation for Bruce’s assistance to her in this quest. It did not matter what the target, Diana decided. She was going to stop it. If she didn’t thousands, nay millions, would die.

 

“You are unable to stop it?” It was more of a statement than it was a question. The desperation she was seeing in this room was the attempt to prevent the death of billions but they were fighting a losing battle and it showed in their urgent attempts now.

 

“Our technicians are doing everything we can but we cannot disarm it.” the Captain said quickly. “Once launched, our ability to disarm is difficult because it is assumed that the tampering may be the result of an attack by our enemies.”

 

Diana sighed, the paranoia of the Patriarch’s world never ceased to amaze her. However, this was not the time to debate their foolishness. “If it cannot be disarmed, then it can be redirected?” She asked, already walking towards the glass.

 

“Not from here,” the Captain shook her head, looking as if she had already considered the possibility. “There is no way to turn it around...”

 

“Yes there is,” Diana said firmly. In fact, the moment Diana had realized that the missile had been launched, she knew that it was the only way to halt the beast on its path of destruction. Looking at the Captain, Diana asked, needing the answer to only one other question before she went after it.

 

“Where is it now?”

 

******

 

When Diana disappeared, Bruce had hoped that Eris would have gone after her, allowing him the chance to save not only Colonel Trevor and his men but himself also. However, the Goddess of Discord had remained, probably to satiate some twisted desire to watch him die for keeping Diana true to her quest, to break free of Eris’ emotional manipulation.

 

As it was, the control room was covered in ice. Trevor and his mean who hadn’t dressed for the weather had succumbed first. Bruce didn’t know if they were dead but hypothermia would surely be sending them on their way by now. As it was, he could barely move. His own costume had given him some shielding but not enough. Absurdly he thought that should he survive this, he ought to consider adding thermal insulation of some sort into his suit.

 

Never know when some wacko might decide to hit me with an ice gun or something.

 

“You will die human,” Eris’ voice boomed in her ear as she watched him, the hatred radiating from her like something tangible. “And with you all that you care about, your friends, your loved ones and most of all, your precious city! That putrefying monument to man’s evil you think you’re strong enough to save. The arrogance of you!”

 

The clouds of smoke swirling around her feet, kept him partially concealed from her sight as his hand inched towards his utility belt. It was hard to do, his fingers were frozen and difficult to flex but he fought to claim every inch of movement he could manage. Ignoring the pain, ignoring the threat against Gotham, Bruce Wayne, the Batman, focused his singular will on nothing but what he had to do. Finally his fingers found the utility belt and the particular compartment he needed to find.

 

“Maybe I won’t save it,” he spoke, glaring at her through the white eye slit of his cowl. “Maybe it will kill me but I’m willing to die. Are you?” He hissed and tossed the thermate grenade at her.

 

The explosion was loud and for a brief moment, Bruce relished the intense heat it generated as if he’d been hit by a bolt of lightning. Eris staggered back, the concussive force taking her by surprise and giving Bruce the chance to move. The temperature was still dropping but the thermate provided a brief respite and the heat allowed him to move. He had only a limited supply of the grenades but he’d need every one of them. Scrambling from beneath her feet, he tossed another in the proximity of Trevor and his men, hoping the heat would be enough to give them a few more minutes of precious life.

 

“Parlor tricks!” Eris laughed as Bruce ran through the hole she’d created when Diana through her through the launch room wall. “You would use these parlor tricks to fight a goddess!!?”

 

Bruce didn’t answer because he was realistic that he couldn’t hold out long but it wasn’t in him to just give up. He may die today but he wasn’t going down easily. “Whatever works,” he said mostly to himself and threw another grenade, mentally counting how many he actually had.

 

The blast erupted near Eris feet this time and in an effort and the dark cloak she wore was quickly ablaze. Eris made no attempt to disrobe and the rising flames brought the temperature in the room up a little more. From his hiding place, Bruce saw Trevor and his men starting to come out of it.

 

“This has been amusing mortal,” Eris snorted “but I have far more important matters to attend. My father’s destiny awaits and you have run out of time.”

With that, she blasted the wall with energy he could not define but saw the metal wall between them melt like molten lava. Fully exposed to her, there was no where left to hide. Bruce knew the next blast from her finger tips would finish him. If she could be distracted long enough for Trevor and his men to recover, they might be able to escape and Bruce could live with that, even he wouldn’t for long.

 

Getting into the best position to avoid the blast when it came, Bruce readied himself when suddenly, a streak of red and blue smashed through the wall behind Eris with a loud and thunderous screech of tearing steel and concrete. Eris was lifted off her feet from behind, her arms flailing about in confusion and fury as she was dragged out of the room by a comet wearing an S shield. For the next few minutes, the world was a sound of smashing concrete and steel, the thunderous raging of a goddess and the raining debris as levels of the bunker were penetrated.

 

Bruce watched the glimmer of sunlight penetrate through the floors Clark had smashed through taking Eris out and thought with a little smile, that sometimes, it felt very good to be saved by Superman.

 

******

 

Clark was still in pain. The wound to his side had not healed as well as it ought to. He should have taken time to rest, to recover but there was none to spare. Having left Metropolis with Ixion, the man of steel had left the beast in the one place he knew it could do no damage. Later on, when Ares was defeated and his plans to destroy the world ended once and for all, he would ask Diana how to imprison the mad titan for good. For now, his solution would have to do.

 

“UNHAND ME!” Eris raged as she was borne out of the bunker by the Kryptonian devil that had greater powers than Heracles himself. They left the confines of the earth and were now bound skyward. She had no difficult flying but his grip upon her was iron and she could not break free.

 

“Gladly,” Clark said promptly, letting her go and then super speeding around her body so that he was facing her.

 

This time, he gave no quarter, cared nothing for the fact that she a deity. All he knew was he needed to get rid of her and if that meant unleashing all the strength he had at his disposal thanks to the battle with Ixion, then so be it. With the same backhand, she had delivered to Diana earlier, Clark’s punch shattered bone or what passed for bone on a god and sent her flying through the air, until she was a dot in the distance, still bellowing with outrage.

 

When she was no longer in sight, at least sight he didn’t need enhanced vision to see, he flew straight up into the air, soaring past the clouds and the startled birds that happened by, nearing the yellow star that gave him his great strength. Closing his eyes, Clark extended his arms, letting soul nourish him, repairing the damage that had been done to him in his earlier battle. Feeling the warmth of the sunshine on his face reminded Clark of those youthful days on the farm, where he and Pa would be working together. Those were simpler times, he lamented.

 

Glancing down at the wound on his body, Clark saw the flesh healing itself, cells repairing themselves thanks to the ministrations of Sol’s life giving rays. In a matter of minutes, the flesh had completely healed with no sign of the earlier injury. Not even a scar. His uniform however, remained torn and would need repair that he’d have to conduct at the fortress when he was able to get back there.

 

For the moment however, he needed to get back to Bruce and find out where Diana was.

 

******

 

Where Diana was at present was chasing the tail of an ICBM flying across the North Atlantic. She had caught up to the thing when it had flown over Finland. Diana had never flown so fast in her life. Pursuing the beast capable of slaughtering thousands in a second, she marveled at is speed and prayed that the gift that Hermes had given her would be up to the task of catch up to it. She would have tried to capture it over land but the fear that any interference to it over a populated centre could result in it exploding prematurely held her restraint.

 

However, the instant it had passed the shores of Great Britain, Diana had poured on more speed, using air currents and any other method she could devise to give her more velocity as she narrowed the gap between herself and the missile. As it was, her skin felt like it was peeling off her bones. While she was built strong and capable of resisting much, she was not invulnerable like Kal. However, she ignored the pain because lives were at stake.

 

The wind rushed through her hair, causing it to follow her like a dark banner of jet. Those who might witness the sight would see a blur of red and gold chasing the modern world version of the harbinger of death. Beneath them, Diana saw boats and birds and waves cresting on the ocean in magnificence ripples of tides and currents. The idea that Ares’ plot would decimate all this, compelled her forward, making her determined to reach the thing that would preempt Ares’ terrible war.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, she neared the missile close enough to use her lasso. Fighting the waves of heat that blazed from its rocket powered engines like an inferno, Diana swung the lariat and looped it around the body of the weapon. Pulling back with all the strength that she had, the missile jerked upward awkwardly, its snub nose lifting into air. However, even with its course slightly adjusted, it was not redirected enough to fly harmlessly into space and ploughed ahead, dragging Diana along with it, determined to reach its destination.

 

Refusing to give up, Diana pulled back again, trying to gain traction by creating enough obstruction to the wind currents to pull it off its trajectory. Her arms ached and her skin blistered but she would not yield. Too many lives were at stake for her to fail. Changing tactics, she began to reel the missile towards her, shortening the length of the rope between herself and the weapon. The missile fought her stubbornly and Diana didn’t even realize when she groaning in pain, the lariat digging into her palms as she pulled.

 

“YOU WILL YIELD!” She shouted at it and then swung her reach wide, causing the missile to be yanked completely off its trajectory, until it was twirling like a propeller above her head. The rocket engines added to its velocity creating a whirlwind of air until Diana was Diana was confident it had acquired the momentum she needed of it.

 

Finally, she released the rope and the missile, causing it to tumble away towards the stratosphere. She followed it as best she could, watching the missile stop its corkscrew ascent in the upper altitudes before it was able to right itself, with nose aimed towards the heavens. When it resumed its flight, it was heading not towards the earth but towards the stars, where she prayed it would cause no further mischief.

 

Arms aching, her palms bloody from where the lariat had cut into her skin from its heavy load, Diana could feel the prickling sensation of first degree burns across her flesh when she had flown into the path of the missile’s rocket to reach it. The wounds would heal soon enough, she thought as she reached for Harmonia’s talisman again, she had saved Bruce’s city and for the moment, she would take comfort in that in spite of her pains.

 

She tried not to think of Bruce, of whether or not he still lived. Such thoughts only weakened her and she remembered what he said, that even in the face of sacrifice, she should use what feelings they shared to help her go on, to help her fight. She would do that because it was right, because it was her destiny and because she owed him that.

 

 

 

 

*Who are you? What are you doing here?

 

 

Chapter Eighteen:

The God Of War

 

“What happened? Where’s Diana?” Clark asked Bruce the minute he set down on the floor of the launch room.

 

Bruce looked up at Clark briefly, taking note of the tear in his uniform before answering, his gaze dropping back to Colonel Trevor who was still lying on the floor,. “I told her to leave, to go after the next missile.”

 

“Alone?” Clark exclaimed, surprised that Bruce would do that, especially when he was getting a fair idea about the man’s feelings for the Amazon. “You sent her off alone?”

 

“Diana’s a warrior Superman,” Bruce said firmly, the barest hint of anger in his voice as the fingers of his gauntlet pressed against Trevor’s neck, searching for a pulse. “She can handle herself and this was always her quest. Besides, Eris was just trying to manipulate her by attacking me and the others. She was stalling Diana and Diana’s in no position to play that game. There are still two other missiles.”

 

Clark was convinced that there was more to it than that. The way Bruce avoided his gaze told the man of steel much about Bruce’s feelings towards Diana so he let the matter drop, turning his attention to the situation at hand.

 

Now that Eris had been dispatched, his super hearing detected the sounds of paramedics on approach. No doubt the surveillance cameras in the walls had given them the all clear to proceed. He could hear their boots pounding across the steel floor as they closed in on the two heroes and the fallen soldiers around them. Although their color was better, Trevor’s men remained dangerously still. For that matter, the exposed parts of Bruce’s face beneath the cowl showed signs of frost burns. The incendiary devices Bruce had used had brought up the temperature in the room but, it was not nearly enough by Clark’s estimation.

 

“They’ve all got hypothermia,” Bruce replied as he started to give Trevor CPR.

 

“It the room temperature,” Clark declared, “its not warm enough. I’ll bring it up,” he stated and took a step back before drawing in his breath. Exhaling, he blew the cold air out of the room, replacing it with the heat of his breath. He would have used his heat vision but that was too much for such an enclosed space. Within minutes, the battle between hot and cold air resulted in beads of water running down walls and instruments as condensation took place.

 

“Thanks,” Bruce said gratefully, unhappy about the state of the Colonel because he couldn’t detect a heart beat. He stood up abruptly to storm over to the door emptying into the corridor beyond. “Hurry up!” He called out to the approaching medics. “These men need help!” He barked.

 

Meanwhile, Clark was blowing more hot air at the soldiers themselves, quick drying their clothes and giving them a more direct application of heat. Hearing Bruce’s concern for Trevor however, prompted Clark to pause and scan the colonel with his enhanced vision and it appear Bruce’s efforts at CPR had borne fruit. He could see and hear the very slight beating of the man’s heart. It was barely discernible but nevertheless present. “Batman, he’s still alive. I can hear his heart beating. Its faint but it there.”

 

As he said that, the paramedics rolled into the room and Bruce withdrew, letting the healers swarm around him and Clark as they attended to the soldiers. The urgency of their comrades’ condition negated any need for pointless questions at the two heroes which was just as well because Bruce was in no mood to be interrogated.

 

“What happened with Ixion?” Bruce asked Clark now that they had a moment to breathe (though not for long), “is Metropolis okay?” By that Bruce actually meant Lois but was certain that Clark would understand his meaning by now.

 

“Yeah,” Clark nodded, “he tore up the city pretty bad but I took care of him.”

 

“You look like hell,” It wasn’t even a question as Bruce regarded the torn fabric of his uniform. It took quite a bit to hurt a Kryptonian, Bruce knew from experience, so any damage would have been severe.

 

“I’ll live...” Clark shrugged, once again reading through the lines of Bruce’s manner to know that he was concerned.

 

Suddenly, klaxons began screaming across the facility and everyone jumped up in response.

 

“What is that?” Clark blurted out, the sound echoed throughout the building and generated all kinds of panic throughout its occupants. He could hear voices shouting out, chatter growing so chaotic it was hard to discern anything useful.

 

“Its the early warning system,” Bruce said grimly. “For a nuclear weapon launch.”

 

*******

 

No more than five minutes later, Clark and Bruce found themselves inside the main operations room of the facility, watching a digital screen displaying an image of the continental North America, Europe and the Atlantic that separated both. By the time they had arrived, the unbroken digital line that had previously depicted the image of an inbound missile crossing over the North Sea towards the United States had suddenly veered off and heading off the map entirely.

 

“It was initially headed for Gotham City,” a Captain Michaelis explained, his expression one of relief, even more so because Superman was here, though he wasn’t certain what to make of the Batman whose existed until now, been something of an urban legend.

 

“Gotham?” Clark exclaimed and shot a look at Bruce who said nothing.

 

Bruce didn’t say anything although his jaw clenched in reaction to the fact that his precious city and those meant everything to him might have come close to annihilation.

“And then all of a sudden,” Michaelis continued, “it seemed to lose all navigational control and was heading on a new course, towards the upper atmosphere. At the speed its going, its going to end up space and in about fifteen minutes.”

 

“Diana,” Bruce looked at Clark. “Diana stopped it.”

 

There was no other explanation. Clark was grateful to the lives she had saved, “but that was but the second of three missiles, somewhere out there was a third.”

 

And then as if fate were listening to the conversation, the air was filled with the shrill sound of klaxons screaming some other calamity about to descend upon them. The tempo was different with pauses in between. Something was happening but it was different kind of something Clark decided as he saw the urgent expression on Michaelis and then Bruce.

 

"What is it?" He asked them, almost shouting to be heard.

 

"Its our early warning system," Michaelis said grimly. "There's been another launch somewhere else."

 

****

 

XIAO QAIDAM

QINGHAI PROVINCE.

 

She was too late.

 

By the time she had reached the facility, she could see the panicked horror on the faces of the men and women working at the complex, chattering to each other in their native tongue fully cognizant of what they'd unleashed upon themselves and the rest of the word. The missile like the last two had been launched and the one who had launched it had lay slumped over the console where he had done the deed, his back riddled with bullets. However, it appeared he had not gone into twilight easily. In the hall beyond the launch room, the floor was strewn with bodies of soldiers who had tried to prevent him from launching his nation's missiles at another without provocation.

 

She remained long enough for them to recognize her as an enemy, the standard on her amour, bore the marks of their global rivals and it did not take long enough for them to train their guns at her. She did not understand their language but they had begun to interpret her presence at being the cause of the dead man's actions. While their words eluded her, their intent did not and Diana was not wasting time when yet another one of these devastating weapons was on its way to giving Ares his victory.

 

Deflecting their bullets, Diana launched herself through the ceiling above her, shattering walls and raining debris and mortar on the people below her. Moving the numerous floors, she tore through the building like a battering ram, demolishing anything that stood between her and the sky. She would stop this last missile even though her flesh still stung from the burns of the last one. It was her destiny to end this conflagration before it escalated into flame that consumed the entire world.

Smashing through the last wall, Diana soared into sky like a phoenix out of the ashes. As she gazed at the skyline above her, she could see the plume of white smoke in the wake of the missile’s launch. The weapon of destruction was itself soaring into the sky with a roar of triumph, celebrating the carnage it would soon cause as the last piece of Ares ultimate plan. Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the thing, determined that it would not succeed and launched herself towards it.

 

The air rushed past as she flew forward, leaving the Chinese base further and further beneath her feet, lost somewhere in the harsh, rocky terrain beneath her. It was a landscape for a hardy people and if she survived these, she wished to learn more about the older cultures of the Patriarch’s World. Bracing herself for the pain and the effort she would need to stop the missile, Diana looked down briefly to reach for her lariat.

 

It was for only an instant that she took her eyes off the missile in front of her but it was enough.

 

She looked ahead only to see something strike her with more power than she had even experienced before. It felled from the sky like a bird struck by an arrow. Blinded by pain and disorientated, Diana was unable to stop herself from being hurled to the ground like a witless child. She fell backward, the wind rushing past her until she slammed through the roof of the building she had exited a moment ago, creating a new trail of destruction as she tore through it again.

 

Great Gaea, she thought as she struggled to get up, what had struck her?

 

Looking up, she could see faces staring at her through the newly created hole through the buildings, peering down at her with a mixture of confusion, fear and anger. They were reeling from shock but Diana could see their outrage at this violation of their domain. There was blood coming from her nose, a river of red running down her lips, creating droplets on her exposed skin. Her palms bleeding as she forced herself off the ground, Diana stood up shakily, feeling the room spin. She shook her head, trying to clear her head. It was not easy to do. She knew she was injured more severely than she'd ever been in her life and she knew that her battle was far from over.

 

She could hear the footsteps of soldiers closing in on her, no doubt wanting answers to why she was destroying their facility and what part was she playing in the launch of the missiles. She could not deal with them now and launched herself into the air once again. This time they did not let her leave as easily and as she moved through the floors, heard the explosion of gunfire around her. One bullet grazed her thigh and caused her to cry out in pain but Diana ignored and kept going, determined to reach the sky once more, determine to keep the missile from reaching its destination.

 

However, someone was waiting for her as she emerged from the roof of the building.

 

Nearly fifteen feet tall, his frame muscular and formidable, he stared at her with eyes glowing like the flames of burning city. He remained motionless in the air, his dark robes swirling about him, resembling not cloth but the clouds of black created by the cruel breath of a village sacked. His amour was dark, engraved with the images of the bloodiest of battles. She did not recognize all of them but she knew that they were conflicts that had torn the world apart from dawn of time. His skin was coal black, not flesh at all but the abyss of complete annihilation. He was anti-life, the personification of humanity's worse impulses.

 

He stared at her and she could not see his face for the face of war was terrible to behold and he was its master.

 

The God of War.

 

"Greetings child of Hippolyta," he spoke and his voice felt the rumble of thunder. "I decided it was time we met.”

 

******

 

“Where did the launch originate?” Bruce demanded when they’d reached control center once again.

 

The place was a hive of urgency activity with screens alive with ominous numbers and digital maps displayed on consoles, most flashing with angry red colors indicating the impending catastrophe. Bruce caught sight of a missile’s trajectory across the Asian continent, the line of trajectory showing an impact zone somewhere in Russia. People were chattering on the phone, hurrying about trying to collect data, searching for some way to deal with the situation or rather survive it.

 

"China!" One of the technicians piped up, too consumed in the urgency of the situation to question why he was answering a man in a cowl while Superman stood next to him with Captain Michaelis.

"Be more specific Airman!" Michaelis barked suspecting that if this was to be stopped then the duo he was with would be the one to do it.

 

"Xiao Qaidam," the young man returned promptly, "in the Qinghai province."

 

"That tracks," Michaelis looked up at Clark and Bruce. "They have a weapons storage and a large military complex there. Our intelligence indicated that it was a possible ICBM silo."

 

"Where's it going to hit?" Clark asked, already guessing that target was Russia. It appeared Ares was playing a game of round robin with nuclear weapons. The US missile had been bound for China, the Russian bound for US and now the Chinese would be firing on Russia. The scope of destruction would have been unimaginable he thought.

 

"St. Petersburg," the technician replied.

 

Clark could not even fathom how many millions of people who would die when that missile reached its destination. St Petersburg was a population of five million people and those who did not perish in the initial blast would instead suffer a slow death by radiation poisoning in the aftermath. To say nothing of the retaliatory strikes that would be launched by Russia and another city would be reduced to cinders and more death would follow. No, he couldn't let that happen.

 

"I have to go now," Clark said retreating from the two men. "I've got to get there first."

 

"Can you stop it Superman?" Michaelis asked, too horrified by what might be to be overcome by skepticism.

 

"I do everything I can to make sure," Clark retorted, daring not to promise him anything more.

 

"I'm going with you," Bruce stated with a firmness that made Clark pause.

 

"Batman," he said feeling odd using the codename at this moment, "I need to get there fast, your suit may not be able to withstand the velocity I'll be travelling." He warned.

 

"I'll take that risk," Bruce declared, not about to be talked out of anything. "If it launched then something stopped Diana, she'll need help."

 

"I'm not willing to let you risk your life," Clark said resolutely.

 

Bruce sucked in his breath, not wanting to play this card but more than willing to. "You owe me."

 

Clark shot him a look, somewhat shocked that Bruce would compel him that way. If it was anyone else, Clark might not have been so surprised. However, it was Bruce who was doing the asking. Bruce who kept his inner self himself hidden in a fortress so impregnable that one would be forgiven for believing he had no heart at all. Except Clark knew better. He'd seen that heart when Chloe was alive and now that Diana had entered their lives, he was seeing glimmers of it again.

 

"Alright," he agreed, wondering if there was ever a doubt that he wouldn't.

 

Although Clark couldn't see through the cowl, he could tell that Bruce was grateful and nodded silently, understanding from where the plea had come. Bruce rarely allowed anyone to see his vulnerabilities that that he was willing to do so spoke to a lot of his feelings regarding the Princess who was out there right now, fighting god knows what. Because like Bruce, Clark knew that noting less than death would have kept Diana from stopping the missile flying towards Russia.

 

Oblivious to the emotional currents swirling between the two men, Captain Michaelis spoke breaking through the unspoken conversation between the two men. "Superman, if you can do this, you don't have much time."

 

"Let's move," Bruce declared, bracing himself for his journey with Clark.

 

“Wish us luck,” Clark said finally to the army captain before he wrapped an arm around Bruce and launched them both off the ground, racing to stop Armageddon.

 

*******

 

Paradise could be found in the most unlikely places.

 

For the doe and her fawn strolling across the plateau on the edge of the remote Qinghai steppes which if travelled along would join with its Tibetan cousin, the foot high grass swaying to the breeze was as near to it as they could imagine. The rains had made the landscape green and for a time at least, the eating was good. Pausing as her yearling bent down to chomp on the verdant grass, the doe lifted her graceful neck high, her keen senses taking in the surroundings, keeping a vigil against the other denizens of the steppes who might do her young harm.

 

The sun was high in the sky and the distant rumbling was another of nature's mysteries for mother and child. Noticed for caution only and then ignored for the sky was known to make noises and the doe was accustomed to these by now. The fawn continued to eat, uneven but straight teeth, chomping away at the grass, storing reserves that would be needed later. The doe, satisfied that was all safe, bent her slender neck and prepared to join her child....

 

Until something caught her attention and her neck stood ramrod straight. Eyes darting about, she sniffed the air experimentally and waited, trying to decide if they should flee. A moment later, the shift caused her young to pause as well and both mother and child tensed, trying to determine from the danger was coming. She could smell it, could hear it and feel its swoosh in the air but she could yet to see it.

 

When it hit a few meters away from her and her progeny, the doe nudged the fawn with her blunt nose, signal to do what the Tibetan antelopes did best; run. Sprinting away from the scene of the alien danger, they did not pause, moving across the gloriously uneaten grass, instinct telling them to run until they very far away.

 

Diana had hit the ground so hard that she'd tore deep furrows through the green grass, until her skin was raw from the coarse grit of soil, her ribs broken, her lips bleeding. Face bloody, she had only a second to recover before a shadow fell over her form and she knew she had to get up now. The cloak of the war god hiding the sun as he hovered her, watching her the way a child would watch the struggles of a fly whose wings he'd just torn off.

 

“Yield child,” his voice rumbled above her like the bursting of artillery. “You cannot win and I will kill you if you continue this foolishness. I do not wish to slay you child, you’ve fought well but this was a battle you were never going to win.”

 

She refused to let herself hear him, refused to acknowledge his words because to do so would be to admit that he could be right. No! She screamed the word in silent defiance. She was born with a destiny, to end the madness of Ares before he brought the world to utter ruin. She could not let that come to pass. For the sake of everyone who breathed, her sisters on Themiscyra, her mother, the friends she had made in the Patriarch’s World....Etta, Lois Lane and Kal.

 

And of course Bruce.

 

Gritting her teeth as gesture of steely resolve, Diana forced herself onto her feet, ignoring the pain she felt in every muscle, determined to stand her ground against the war god, even if it was to the death. Straightening up, she looked up at him, the son of Zeus, who personified the cruelest aspect of man’s aggression.

 

“I will never surrender the field, my Lord.” She hissed and launched herself up in the air, fists forward, using all the strength that Gaea had bestowed upon her before she was born. Diana was no fool, she would not pit herself against Ares. If she had learnt anything these last few minutes, she was no match for him and he knew it. His purpose in appearing before her was merely to prevent her from stopping the missile his minions had already dispatched. She flew at him, hoping that she’d trick him into believing she was about to attack, perhaps catching him off guard when she didn’t.

 

It was a vain hope.

 

The God of War did not need to strike her. Something akin to the flames of a blast furnace shot past his fingers and enveloped her, the searing pain so intense Diana could only scream. Her skin felt as if it were on fire but her endurance and vulnerability though not as powerful as Kal’s, kept her from being burned alive. Caught in mid air, she writhed in pain as he swatted her aside like she was an annoyance not the strongest of her race. Diana was hurled through the air like a flaming arrow, smashing into side of a terraced cliff, the impact, breaking the soil and rock loose and it tumbled to the steppe beneath.

 

Diana landed against grass, her body pelted by debris as it rained down upon her. The cool soil offering her some respite from the searing pain of the scalding. Tears running down her face, she knew that despite the need to simply stay put, to succumb to his assaults, she simply had to stand. Pushing herself onto her hands and knees when she mustered the strength to move, she looked up to see her tormentor staring down at her, his face hidden by his helmet while his eyes revealed his contempt.

 

“Do not do this Lord Ares,” Diana pleaded. “I beseech you to consider what it is you do. Your mastery over this world is great, you have proven to the Olympus that you are a son as great as his father. You do not have to let the Earth burn.”

 

“Do not speak to me as if you understand the ways of a god child,” he spoke reproachfully. “Man has always been mine. Prometheus may have created him out of clay but he was always my creature. Before Pandora unleashed her doom upon him, I was the reason man conquered, to claim his right as the master of all through force and strength., to better himself at any cost, even if that cost was blood. My mother, my sisters sought to blunt my power by creating your race, an equal to man, imbuing you with a desire for peace and unknowingly ensured that you would fail.”

 

“I will not fail,” she stood up again, a show of defiance that he would have to annihilate all traces of her before she would admit anything else. “And man is capable of more than this bloody path you have set him upon, even to his destruction.”

 

His laughter was like thunder rumbling, it made Diana stiffen with anger and impotence at his so obvious superiority. “You are priceless child? What do you know of man? Has your mortal lover tainted your reasoning so quickly?”

 

The mention of Bruce raised Diana’s hackles even more.

 

The war god snorted and added, “just like a woman.”

 

Fury surge through her, the adrenaline rushing through her like fire and Diana launched herself into the air again, taking advantage while he laughed at her, thinking her insignificant. She was not. She was a daughter of Gaea and she would not fail! She struck him so hard and fast that the ground rumbled from the sonic boom. He was off balanced but for a moment and Diana knew that when he regained it, she would be at a disadvantage again. Reaching the lariat forged by Ares’ own brother Hephaestus, she threw the lasso and circled the god of war in gold before jerking back with all the strength she had. He bellowed in outrage, a sound that was terrifying and served to remind of her own fear. Diana forced it away, ignoring the consequences of an assault on an Olympian, the first son of Zeus no less. Diana had greater concerns at present.

 

She had captured a war god. Now she had to decide what to do with him.

 

****

 

Just like when he was travelling with Lois, Clark had to be mindful of his passenger when he flew across the globe in a matter of minutes. Shielding his body against Bruce's own, Clark's invulnerable form kept the wind velocity from causing him friend any serious harm. Bruce's costume design to protect him from gunfire, also aided in the process allowing Clark to fly faster than he would with Lois. In a matter of minutes, he was approaching the coast of China, the landmass growing larger and larger with mile gained.

 

He didn't bother asking Bruce if the man was doing okay travelling at these speeds. For starters the wind would blunt either of their voices and Clark's repertoire didn't include super ventriloquism. While he could hear well enough, he wasn't sure that Bruce was capable of lip reading under such circumstances since the man wouldn't be able to hear him. Besides, he doubted Bruce would tell him if anything was wrong anyway. The last thing that Bruce considered a reason for caution was his well being. Clark had known him long enough to be certain of that.

 

However, Clark could not ignore the personal stake that Bruce had in this; Diana was the first evidence of his caring for anyone since Chloe, according to Lois. Clark wanted that for Bruce. As much as Bruce claimed to need no one in his life, Clark knew better. Chloe had given Bruce something; a place to retreat from his dark, solitary purpose and since her death, it seemed to Clark that Bruce had allowed it to swallow him whole. If he lost that connection with humanity, Clark feared for him, feared what he might become.

 

It was bad enough when Lex gave in to his darker impulses, the horror of what Bruce might be capable of was something not even a man of steel was prepared to face.

 

As they swept across the Chinese coast, their presence was noted by the sudden swells in the ocean as the wind spurred large waves to shatter against the shore. Their velocity had the affect of a low flying 747, a sonic boom was heard as he poured on more speed, shattering windows, causing people to look up in the air, wondering why there was thunder on a seemingly cloudless day. As he left the populated centres and moved into the interior of mainland China, trees beneath them bent like reed, grass fields shimmered, parting in places where the wind was too strong while animals fled for safer ground mistaking the signs for some impending calamity.

 

Using his enhanced vision, Clark scanned the distance before him, centering on the map coordinates that Michaelis had been good enough to provide before they'd left. There were times being able to see everything was a decided disadvantage, it allowed you to see too much, particularly when you were powerless to do anything about. The first thing he saw was the missile, speeding across central China, adjusting its trajectory to meet its destination in Russia. The second thing he saw was Diana and her state correspond with the expression on her face. She was bloody, badly scalded and she was still fighting. She was giving it everything she had and it wasn't enough.

 

Bruce caught the look and cursed his mortality for once because he wanted to know what was at the root of that troubled expression. At this moment than any other, Bruce envied Clark's abilities because his bones were aching and his skin freezing beneath layers of Kevlar from travelling at this speeds. He couldn't tell Clark though but the Kryptonian's determination to protect all life, even his, would cause him to slow down and Bruce knew they couldn't afford to waste a moment.

 

Like he was watching a movie in fast forward, Bruce saw the landscape beneath him blur and looked up to see two figures in the distance, in mid air. It took him a minute more to realise that it was Diana and.... the being she had caught in her lasso was clad in Grecian amour but his skin was black, reminding him of the filthy industrial smoke that spewed out of smoke stacks. His features were obscured and a flash of insight made Bruce think that the face of war was too terrible to behold and so it could not be discerned.

 

"DROP ME!" He ordered.

 

Clark who had started to slow down, stared back at him disbelief. "WHAT?"

 

"You heard me! Drop me! You have to keep going after the missile!" Bruce repeated, reading his words more than hearing at this velocity.

 

"Goddamn it Bruce, you know what that is! He'll kill her and then you!" Clark pointed out in exasperation.

 

"And that missile will kill millions!" Bruce reminded harshly. "Do it Clark. If we die, we die. Diana and I accept that but you need to save the people that thing will kill! You know what's at stake!"

Clark wanted to protest because everything in him told him this was wrong, that you didn't leave your friends to die but Bruce was right. Damn him, Bruce was always right. A missile launch would give Ares his war, where the dead would not be the inhabitants of one city but would spark the flame of global destruction not even a Superman could stop.

 

"HELL!" He cursed and adjusted his own flight, moving low enough to the ground to drop Bruce so that the Batman could do what he could for Diana.

 

The battle between Ares and Diana was taking close enough for the duo to see the new arrivals and though Clark was torn at the thought of leaving when he saw the battering Diana was taking at the hands of a being that had to be the war god, he dropped Bruce on the rough terrain.

 

“I’ll be back as soon as I ....” he started to say when Bruce cut him off.

 

“I know! Just go! Before he tries to stop you to!” Bruce snapped and saw Clark giving a last look before the man from Krypton disappeared into the sky in a streak of red and blue, an explosion of sound in his departure.

 

*****

 

The thunderclap distracted both Diana and Ares. The two combatants looked up and saw the blur of red and blue disappearing into the sky, vanishing in a blink of an eye.

 

Kal! Diana thought with elation, relief flooding through her bruised and battered body because if Kal was here it meant that he had succeeded in defeating Ixion and was able to reach the last of the missiles.

 

“NO!” Ares roared as he realized that the Amazons’ comrade could upset his plans irrevocably. His eyes turned red with fury. “I will destroy your allies as easily I destroy you!” He bellowed and yanked the lariat holding him forward, pulling Diana towards him helplessly. She clung to the gold chord, determined not to let go despite knowing the pain that awaited her once she reached Ares.

 

It was no misjudgment on her part. When his fist hit her, she felt a nose shatter, warmth running down her face, stinging the split lip and feeling her mouth with its metallic taste. Her thoughts were in disarray as if blasted apart by a scattergun however, she held fast to lariat, a singular thought overriding the pain and the disorientation; not to let go. As long as she held the war god in place, he could not pursue Kal and Kal could stop the weapon.

 

Her life was surely worth all those he would save.

 

Ares kept his grip on the lariat even after he’d struck his blow, using the slack to swing the Amazon champion against the hard ground. Like a whip, he lashed the earth, using every method he could to dislodge her grip so he may pursue the last son of a dead world, flying swiftly towards the weapon that would set his glorious plan in motion.

 

“Let go child and this will end,” he tried to reason with the girl, who was nothing more than a big ugly wound of pain at this point. He could send her agony, could feel her strength waning, her ability to endure eroded under his assault. A part of the war god admired her fold her resilience for despite all of it, she would not yield. These Amazons were made of stern stuff.

 

“NO!” She shouted through cracked lips, her voice a groan of defiance. “I will not allow you to destroy this world, not while there is life left in my body!”

 

“It is a life granted by the GOD!” He roared in frustration and slammed her against the ground, a cloud of dust created by her impact. “You have no life without us! Olympus made you and I shall unmake you!”

 

“It matters not that I die!” She spat back, the lariat coiled around her wrist and palm as she forced herself to her feet again. “My purpose was to bring an end to your madness and it is a sacrifice I am willing to pay!”

 

Ares sought a different tact since the girl was defiant. He considered a moment her actions in the Patriarch’s World as these Amazon harpies called it and then thought of a way to penetrate her resolve.

 

“What if I allowed you and your sisters to live, I shall protect your island. Themiscyra holds no interest for me. You and mother can rule as you have always done. Think of it child, you do not need to die. Your strength and courage is great, a shame to squander on a meaningless death. Yield and you can live an immortal life, spared from the conflagration that must be.” He paused a moment and with a smile she could not see added, “I will even allow you to bring your lover to Themiscyra, your Bruce. You may live in paradise with him, perhaps even have children of your own. Think of it child.”

 

Damn him, she thought to herself, damn him for bring Bruce’s name forward because for a moment she did think of it She saw the purity of the God’s design then the created man and woman, how abiding their love could be. She thought of Kal by the side of his Lois, the woman with whom he could not do without. He’d battled the prisoner of the wheel to save her and Diana knew she saw the same care in Bruce’s eyes. He loved her, she knew it. He had not said the words but she saw it in his face and her own heart was very much his. If she yielded to Ares, she could have a life with him. She could salve the wounds in his tortured soul and bring fulfillment to her own.

 

“Think of it Princess…” Ares cajoled her like Zeus did when he gave Pandora the box.

 

Princess, Bruce called her that. And thinking of when Bruce, Diana remember what he’d told the last time she’d seen him, that love was about sacrifice and sometimes even brief was worth a lifetime if sacrificed in a cause that was just.

 

“No,” Diana shook her head, tears running down her face. “As much as I want that my lord, I cannot. Real love is about sacrifice and I cannot sacrifice the entire world for myself, my sisters nor Bruce. Not if I honor all that they are.”

 

“Pity,” Ares shook his head. “Then you will die with the rest of them.”

 

*****

 

Leaving Bruce and flying after the missile was one of the hardest decisions that Clark Kent ever had to make.

 

It wasn’t just about leaving his best friend to deal with what was probably an ancient Greek god but also leaving Diana to fend for fend for herself when he saw just about brutalized she’d been at the hands of that deity. However, if Jor-El’s teachings had taught him anything, it was that sometimes there had to be sacrifices for the greater good. The thing was, Clark had never been able to make that distinction; not then and not now.

 

He’d been unable to sacrifice Lois to Ixion just as he’d put off training with Jor-El until Chloe Sullivan had died. Yet he knew neither Bruce nor Diana would look favorably upon his choice if he had fought the war god with them. No, he had a role to play in this battle and as he sped across the landscape, his enhanced vision searching for the missile that had crossed into Russian space, he knew what part that was.

 

Beneath him, the empty, unpopulated landscape began to pick up with more and more traces of civilizations. Large stretches of empty space were becoming littered with settlements, coalescing into small villages, then small towns and big ones. He knew it wouldn’t be long before cities came into view and he would be out of time.

 

Flying faster than he’d ever travelled before, Clark was moving at speeds no human could endure, Kevlar or not. The wind around him had been whittled down from a continuous thunderous roar to a loud drone that was ringing in his eyes, blocking out the other voices and sounds that he picked up as normal background chatter he was able to filter out. The wake of his course created dust clouds and gale force winds. Debris was flying into the air, litter, dust, leaves, anything that was susceptible to the wind.

Finally, the missile came into view as it entered the city limits of Moscow.

 

Clark imagined that beneath him and the missile, the people of that city were in chaos and he might need to return here after he’d dispatched the missile to ensure that panic didn’t cause more damage than he already did. He wondered what safety measures were in place for the city and then realized that all the plans in the world couldn’t account for good old human panic.

 

Clark poured on more speed, shattering windows with his velocity as he closed the distance between himself and the back of the missile. He approached it from the rear, his Kryptonian skin keeping him from becoming incinerated as he caught a face full of intense heat blasting out of the missile’s engines. Grabbing onto the metal, his fingers dug deep as he forcibly altered the trajectory of the nuclear projectile and aimed it away from the city and towards the sky.

 

The missile wrestled against his control and for a few seconds, there was a struggle between man and machine as guidance system tried to compensate for the interference. In the end, the determination and strength of the Kryptonian won out and the missile submitted to the new direction and began speeding out of the atmosphere.

 

Clark wasn’t about to discharge his duty that quickly however and he continued to guide the nuclear weapon out of the stratosphere, leaving the cool comfort of the blue sky as they ascended higher and higher, leaving the world beneath them. The missile was no longer protesting its new trajectory and Clark had no difficulty guiding it put of the planet’s orbit.

 

They passed the international space station and left the moon behind them. With Sol beckoning in the distance, a yellow orb against the velvet darkness, Clark adjusted the missile’s path once more, like he was threading a needle and finally let go. He watched as it continued on its path, far away from its original destination, heading for oblivion in the new, returning to the sun like a child to the cradle.

 

Only when it had disappeared from his immediate sight, did Clark finally turn around and headed back to the blue world that was his home, to the friends he prayed were still alive.

 

*****

 

Alive yes but barely.

 

That was Bruce Wayne aka Batman’s assertion when he finally closed the distance between himself and the battle waged by Diana against the war god, making that journey on foot. It wasn’t easy to find them. The war god’s rages were like thunder claps and each strike on Diana shook the ground beneath him, giving Bruce an easy path to follow. When he finally reached the last ridge and saw Diana, even his normally dispassionate façade was shaken at the sight of her.

 

Jesus Christ, she was almost dead.

 

He could see the injuries across her body, the flesh that was nearly rubbed raw, the blood and discoloration that indicate the damage she had taken. Diana was still fighting, determined to keep the war god from pursuing Clark. Against this enemy, Diana’s formidable powers were nothing, not when Bruce saw her being smashed against the ground like a rag doll as Ares tried to get free. He wondered if there was anything he could do to help. He was just human with a bag of tricks to someone like Ares.

 

What could he do?

 

It didn’t matter, Bruce told himself a second later as he prepared to launch himself into the fray, Diana needed him and that was all that was important.

 

Bruce approached the two, feeling like the gnat that was getting in between two charging rhinos, wondering what he could do to help when Diana was so overwhelmed. He knew the best that he could manage was to be a distraction, a minor one at that but it might be enough for Diana to gain some respite, perhaps even catch her breath to go on the offensive.

 

Reaching for his batarangs, he took up position behind a scab of rock and threw the sharp, bat shaped spurs at the war god, one after the other, playing the role of the gnat.

 

Ares felt the sharp points of metal strike him almost immediately and turned in the direction of whence they came. One of the weapons dug into his skin though it did little to hurt him. The war god pulled the tiny spurts and grasped it in his large fingers like he was holding a needle and started to laugh. “Oh mortal you are truly priceless. This is your plan to harm me?”

 

Bruce! Diana turned to the space where Ares was taunting and saw the leather clad figure with the dark cowl and cape. Her heart swelled a moment at seeing him he had come but that instant was done when Ares sent a blast of fire at the rock behind which Bruce sought refuge, obliterating it an a cloud of dust and debris.

 

“BRUCE!” She almost cried out but the human was already on the move. She knew that he would not last long against Ares and Diana sought a new line of defense because her present course of delaying Ares had altered to involve keeping Bruce safe. She could not defeat Ares, that much clear but the god of war had to be stopped. He had to see what he plan would not unfold as he intended, he had to know the truth.

 

The truth…

 

Gaea be praised. That’s what Ares needed to see, the truth. Athena’s wisdom shone its light upon her as Diana realized that this was never about besting the war god in battle, this was about making him see the truth.

 

“ARES!” She demanded, dropping to her knees, pressing the lariat against the earth so that it and her would be renewed by Gaea’s strength. “ARES listen to me!”

 

Ares bristled at her command as he saw the human mite running for cover, tossing more of his little weapons at the god in an attempt to prolong his existence. He snapped his neck as he glared at her, his eyes burning with annoyance. “Do you think this battle allows you to call me anything other than your lord Princess? I will waste no more of my time on either of you!”

 

“You are my lord, Ares,” Diana continued to speak. “You are the greatest of Olympus’ warriors, the god of war. You have proven your courage to Zeus and all your enemies. Will you prove your courage to me?”

 

“Prove my courage?” Ares snorted, incensed. “How dare you? You are a weakling fashioned out of clay! I am god of Olympus, I need prove nothing to you!”

 

“Not even to show that you are unafraid of the truth?” Diana challenged.

 

Bruce listened to the exchange after Ares turned away from him, starting to see Diana’s plan and he commended her for it. Yes Princess, he thought to himself, let him understand what we all know. Let him see the reality of what he wants. All the god of war could see was the glorious battle and like all creatures of arrogance their perception was often short sighted until it was too late.

 

“I fear nothing!” Ares retaliated, wondering what mischief this Princess was attempting to parlay with him. “I already know the truth!”

 

“You know the truth as you see it my lord!” Diana answered, the lariat pressed into the ground, the energy of Gaea’s renewal restoring her enough to hold firm but little else. “There are many truths by which we see things but in reality only one which truly matters. Let your brother’s creation be the crucible by which you see the real truth.”

 

Ares hesitated, feeling a sense of unease at her request. There was something in what she asked that unsettled him but he was far too arrogant to admit it. “I already know that which you think you will have me know. Will you yield if I am right?”

 

Diana nodded with certainty that this was the course to take. Perhaps it had always been the only way to defeat Ares. It was a question she would put to Athena if she survived this day. “I will yield my lord. You have my word.”

 

“I will hold you to that promise child,” Ares retorted, convinced that this was another tactic to delay him. It would matter little. Even if this day did not end in the way he wished it, there were always minions willing to do his bidding.

 

That’s it Diana, Bruce thought as he listened in shadows, keeping out of Ares path to avoid giving Diana another thing to worry about. He’d done all he could distract Ares and that allowed Diana a moment to catch her breath and apparently that was all she needed. He could hear the hope in her voice at getting Ares to choose their final battleground.

 

“Then do your worst child,” Ares taunted, watching her hold the lariat in palms that were rubbed raw and bleeding, keeping the gold pressed into the ground to gain the strength of Gaea, given to her by Demeter his aunt, an Olympian older than he.

 

On her knees, holding the lariat to the god of war like one trying to tether a bird in flight, Diana took in a deep breath, feeling her chest ache at the action before she spoke. “Ares, son of Zeus, with the power of Gaea and the blessing of Olympus woven into this lariat, given to me by Hephaestus god of Forge and imbued with the wisdom of your sister, Athena, see the truth of what you would wreak today.”

 

At first, the god of war was still and there was a silence in all things around them. Like all life and sound had diminished and they were the last three people in the world. The wind died, the creatures great and small held their breath in anticipation and the god of war, standing on the cusp of his greatest victory began to see.

 

He saw his weapon reach its destination, watched the moment of silence almost as ominous as this one before a light so bright filled his senses as if his brother Apollo had him into the centre of the sun. The bright was only momentary and when it diminished the world around him was blown away like creation itself had expelled a held breath. Everything was destroyed, wall of fire not seen since the war with the Titans swept across the landscape. Stone, iron, wood, flesh all burned in one terrible instant and a column of smoke reached so high into the sky that the clouds parted in dismay.

 

There was no screaming.

 

Not one at all. The destruction had come upon them so swiftly that no one had time to scream. In a second, they were bodies wrapped in flames before disintegrating into ash. Nothing was left in their wake, just ashes of complete destruction, borne away by the hot, gasp of wind. In a second, there was nothing where millions had been, just this leveled ruin of a city. The survivors who had not perished in the initial blast were already dying. The poison was already seeping into their skins, slowly liquefying their bones. In the days to come, they would look upon those who had died first as the fortunate ones.

 

And this horror was repeated on every continent with each city falling like dominoes once the chain of events had been started. The explosions seemed like stars twinkling in the night, gone as soon as they had started yet leaving behind nothing but devastation in its wake. Ares saw this destruction and reveled in the potency of the hallucination. He could smell the smoke, the burning pyres of bone and flesh as his masterpiece was unfolded before him.

 

From his domain the Areopagus, Ares watched the flame he had breathed into existence burn as he imagined it would be. This was the truth the child wanted him to see? He almost laughed at her naïveté. As if seeing the destruction would cause him to change his course. What foolishness had been in her mind? In his victory, he would claim his place on Olympus, usurp Zeus and take the throne of heaven once and for all.

 

Except….

 

The scene began to change because once the flames had burnt itself out, there were nothing else. There were no survivors left to sing praises, no one to remember the world that been. The few lived were the walking dead, their thoughts devoid of hope, of spirit or faith. Even the Amazons beyond the veil were not spared the destruction and as their lives withered like fruit on the vine, Ares began to see the magnitude of what had been done.

 

The Olympians moved like shadows into the great ship bound for underworld because they knew that without the faith of man to believe in gods, that without the worship of the Amazons, their existence too, was finite. He stood on a mountain of bone, his Areopagus crumbling around him, joining the ashes of Gaea’s earth, whose passing not even the gods were able to bear witness because they too were gone.

 

And he was all alone.

 

There was no one left to see his greatness. The gods had abandoned the realm, gone to their end with the rest of the humanity. The world was ruin of dead, poisonous ash and the only thing that still lived was him. There were no voices, no prayers to the god of war to win their cause, just emptiness and silence. Even his children diminished for without man to feel dread or discord, what use were gods?

 

“NO!” He howled in rage. “This cannot be real! It is a ruse!”

 

Ares had dropped to his knees, his great body shaking in horror. “YOU HAVE TRICKED ME!”

 

“No my lord!” Diana responded, shaking her head. “This is the truth you did not want to see, that if you continue on this path! There will nothing left, not humanity, not Olympus not you! Stop this madness now! Stop it while there is still time!”

 

All his glorious plans and this was the result. No one left to see his greatness? What use was a masterpiece if no one could appreciate it? “All this time,” Ares groaned, burying his face in his hands, “all this time and this is what comes of my plans? It is…WRONG!”

 

“What else is the result of war my lord?” Diana asked, loosening her grip, sensing that she’d get no more fight from him. “You have seen a thousand battles and in the end, there is always ruin except now, mankind’s weapons can destroy everything. Your creation has become the master except his expression of it will destroy us all. War can no longer be the way, my lord. Even you must see that now.”

 

Begrudgingly, Ares conceded defeat as the lariat slackened around him and he stepped out it. Diana made no attempt to regain control of him. It was no longer needed. Ares had seen what she needed him to. Dropping to the ground, she allowed herself to feel the exhaustion sapping away at her strength.

 

“Aye child, I see. I will be there when man chooses to wage war against his brother but I will not longer take part in it.” The war god spoke staring at the broken form of the young woman.

 

“That’s it?” Bruce Wayne shouted. “You nearly bring the world to annihilation and that’s all you have to say for yourself?” Bruce had emerged when Ares had been deconstructed.

 

“I do not answer to you, son of Wayne.” Ares shot him a look, eyes still red but there seemed to be softness in them as well, the menace blunted by understanding and regret. “I am the god of war and as long as your kind chooses to fight, I will exist.”

 

“There is another path,” Diana spoke, eyes meeting Bruce’s, “it is path of love and understanding. They can be a great people my lord; they lack the light to show them the way. There are good people who will stand and show mankind that there is more than violence and pain, there is good in everyone.”

 

“Then help them find it child,” Ares declared, his voice regaining its earlier imperiousness as he glance at Bruce briefly before turning his eye to her again to issue one final warning. “Show them a better way, you and your comrades or else I will them teach a lesson they will not forget.”

 

And with that, the god of war disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke.

 

 

EPILOGUE

 

Bruce was running before he could process the thought to do so.

 

In the wake of Ares' departure, the landscape had returned to its earlier peace. The gale force winds and thunder had left clear skies overhead. It felt almost profane in the face of the violence that had taken place only minutes before. Boots crunching the gravel and dirt underfoot, Bruce moved faster than he'd ever run before, until the heart in his chest felt like it would explode. For the first time into too many years, he felt fear and it ran rivers through him as he closed the distance between himself and Diana.

 

He followed the path led by the golden rope, lying against the ground after it had released its captive. The lariat led him back to it owner and Bruce prayed to a god he seldom had faith in, one not of Olympus that she was still alive.

 

He followed the path led by the golden rope, lying against the ground after it had released its captive. The lariat led him back to it owner and Bruce prayed to a god he seldom had faith in, one not of Olympus that she was still alive.

 

His first glimpse sight of her was that mane of glorious dark hair, now covered in dirt and blood. Her skin was red, raw, scalded and bruised all over. Remembering how magnificent she'd been when he first saw her, this made his stomach clench in outrage and though he knew he had no chance of surviving, he really wanted to take a swipe at the god that had made her this way. She was lying on her stomach, her face pressed against the dirt, her fingers still clasping the rope in her hands.

 

Skidding to his knees, Bruce was at her side in seconds.

 

"Princess," he said gently, taking her gently and rolling her onto his lap, cradling her wounded body in his arms. "Talk to me. Give me a sign here...please."

 

Her face was as ravaged as the rest of her. A normal human would be dead by now and though Diana had some measure of invulnerability, it was nothing like Clark’s and certainly not against a god from the same pantheon of deities who had supposedly created her in the first place. That she had continued to fight in spite of all her injuries was a testament to her mettle. And she'd won not because she was stronger but because she had made a mad god see reason.

 

How could Bruce not love her?

 

Bruce's fingers shook when he moved the hair from her face, brushed away the tears in her eyes as he saw her eyelids flutter open and focus. She shuddered in his embrace with a start, as if suddenly remembering she was still alive. Eyes fixed on him, more tears streamed down her dirt covered cheeks, living pale streaks across her skin.

 

"Bruce, you live. Thank Gaea," she whispered softly. "I thought he...he might...."

 

"Don't talk Diana," he said gently. "I'm okay. You did it Diana, you stopped him. You made him understand."

 

She blinked and heaved with relief before her eyes closed. "Bruce, I hurt."

 

She couldn't move, couldn't feel anything. Life felt like it was being bled from her body.  Everything was agony, except him and it was him that kept from receding into the bliss of oblivion.

 

"I know," he said quickly, trying to assess what first aid he could give her. He carried a small supply of first aid implements but nothing to deal with the injuries she'd sustained. He suspected the damage he couldn't see was much worse than what he could see. "I'm going to get you out of here. Get you help. Just stay with me Diana."

 

"Oh Bruce," she reached for his face, her palm brushing the exposed part of his face. "It is alright. You taught me remember?" She said weakly. "That love is this, its sacrifice? A  brief moment can last a lifetime." She repeated his words back to him.

 

"No it doesn't!" He hissed and realised that when he was the one hearing it, it was not an acceptable price at all. It hadn't felt acceptable when he lost Chloe and it didn't feel acceptable now. "The pain becomes overwhelming, until the only way you can live with it is to shut everything else out, until you feel nothing."

 

And that's how he'd lived his whole life wasn't it? The cowl had been waiting for him since that terrible day in the alley, bathing him in blood that his life was decided with a gunshot as surely as his parents' had been. It wasn't just them who died that day. Little Bruce Wayne was destroyed as well and all that was left was the Bat. It had take time for it to be fully realised but it was the truth. There had only been one moment, where he thought he might be saved from his dark destiny and that was when he met Chloe. She'd loved him, loved him for all his fears for all his rage. She'd given him a place in the light and while she'd been in his life, he thought that perhaps, perhaps he could be more. Her death had sealed his fate.

 

So he thought until he met Diana and suddenly, she had given him hope and reason to believe in more than his crusade.

 

"I don't want to feel nothing again Diana, I don't want to be reminded of what life was like before you were in it so I am not going to let you go Princess. Not me nor the people who can't do without you! Please."

 

She didn't answer him. Her eyes were closed in surrender to her injuries.

 

Bruce swallowed thickly, feeling for a pulse and letting out a shudder of relief when he felt one. Gently, he lowered his lips to her bruised ones and planted a gentle kiss.

 

In the background, he heard the gust of wind and looked over his shoulder to see Clark land. The man of steel hurried forward, looking as exhausted as he but paused at the sight of Diana in Bruce's arms. How she had become so important to them in such a short time was a mystery but when Clark saw the pain in Bruce's face, it didn't matter. She just was.

 

"Diana?" He could hear her heart beat but it was sluggish.

 

"You have to get her help now," Bruce cleared his throat, the stoic mask falling over his features once more. "Take her back to Metropolis and her mother. They can probably help her better than our doctors can."

 

"Ares?" Clark asked as he dropped to his knees to take the unconscious Amazon in his arms.

 

"Gone," Bruce said shortly, reluctantly allowing Clark to take Diana from him. "The missile?"

 

"Gone," Clark answered with similar finality.  He hoisted Diana in his arms, trying not to be affected by how ravaged she looked. It was almost as hard as seeing Lois in the hospital.  "What about you?"

 

"I'll be fine," Bruce declared, "just get her to her mother."

 

Clark nodded and gave Bruce a look of silent promise, that he'd die trying.  "I'll be back."

 

And with that, Superman launched himself into the air, disappearing into the blue sky, taking Diana with him.

 

Bruce watched until the blue and red streak was gone before he let out  a deep sigh. Lifting his arm up, he activated the radio transmitter in his gauntlet. After a few seconds, when a light beeped its readiness to transmit, he spoke.

 

"Alfred, I need a pick up."

 

*****

 

What happened to Diana after Clark took her to her mother, Clark didn't know.

 

The Amazons were understandably horrified by the state of their champion when Clark returned her to them. Hippolyta immediately took charge of her injured child and told Clark, albeit politely, that his assistance was no longer required. Diana needed the healing powers of island home, Themiscyra. As much as he wanted to debate the matter, particularly for Bruce's sake, there was little he could do but agree to the request. Besides there was much left for him to do in the so called Patriarch’s World, he had to retrieve Bruce and help where he could with the damage caused by Ixion’s rampage.

 

Of course when he reached the spot where he’d left the cowled hero, he found that Bruce had already gone. It didn’t take him long after scanning the terrain that Bruce had departed leaving the costume behind. Resourceful as ever, Clark surmised that however Bruce had left the area, he’d done so protecting his identity. Leaving the man to his own devices for the moment, Clark returned to the States because there was still much for him to do, not merely as Superman but also Clark Kent.

 

To his chagrin, he’d discovered that Lois had checked herself out of hospital instead of returning to it after she’d recovered from Eris’ poisoning. Worse yet, he found her not at her apartment getting some rest but at her desk at the Daily Planet, hard at work.  The place was near empty except for her since everyone else in the bullpen was still at the hospital recovering.

 

She still looked pale as she sat at her desk, pounding away furiously at her laptop, a huge Styrofoam cup of coffee to keep her company. He wanted to sweep her off her feet and take her home before she could blink but there were some risks not even Superman was willing to take.

 

"I suppose it was too much to expect that you'd go home and get some rest?" He asked, zooming into the chair of the desk nearest to hers.

 

Lois looked up and broke into a smile. No matter how sick she was, that glorious smile lit up the room and his heart all at once. "Only if you're there." She retorted, getting up from her hair to promptly plant himself in his lap, arms wrapped around his neck. Technically, they were partners and their love affair was a secret but with the bullpen quiet, Lois risked a little exposure when she leaned forward and caught his lips in a deep, grateful kiss.  "Are you alright?" She asked, remembering how he'd been the last time she'd seen him.

 

"I'm better," he answered before adding, "though I won't lie to you. I could actually use a good night's sleep tonight after today." In truth, he rarely needed to sleep more than an hour or two but its beneficial effects on him were more psychological rather than physical.

 

They'd known each other since they were teenagers, since she'd run into him in that cornfield in Smallville, Kansas, she knew his moods better than she knew herself. If there was anything Lois prided herself at being good at, it was loving him. She did that better than she was a reporter, she sometimes thought secretly.  She could see the shadow in his eyes and the worry. "What about Bruce and Diana?"

 

The news had reported that agents of the terrorist group November 17 had somehow broken into three high security installations across the globe and nearly provoked a nuclear war by launching missiles from China, Russia and the United States. Only the presence of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman had managed to stopped disaster. Satellites images had captured scenes of Superman and Wonder Woman diverting the perilous weapons into the atmosphere preventing detonation. She knew there was more to it and it showed in Clark's haunted expression.

 

"Bruce is alright," he answered quickly, aware of the close friendship between the two. "He was alive the last time I saw him in China. Knowing him, he's probably on a jet on the way home now."

 

"And Diana?" Lois prompted, convinced there was more to it than that.

 

Clark met her eyes, "I don't know. She went head to head with the war god..." Clark had told Lois about Diana's quest and after what she'd seen of Themiscyra, she believed him. "He hurt her...badly. I don't know if she'll survive. She stopped him though, she made him see what he was about to do."

 

"And he believed her?" Diana asked, hesitant to think it could be that easy. Of course, Clark's worry indicated it was anything but that.

 

"He almost killed her," Clark retorted, "but yes, he believed her."

 

Lois embraced him hard, seeing that he needed a hug. Diana had come to mean a lot to him and though she'd insecure about their relationship in the beginning, she saw that his affection for the Amazon Princess was more fraternal than romantic. Diana was just like him, in strength and spirit. They shared the same values and Lois recognised now that he saw in Diana a kindred spirit, like he’d seen in Bruce when they’d first met.

 

"I’m worried about Bruce,” Clark admitted. "He cares about her. I’m afraid what will happen if she doesn’t make it.”

 

"Diana’s strong Clark,” Lois said quickly, refusing to let him entertain that thought too deeply. "The Amazons are amazing healers. Menalippe was able to help me against those poison apples right?” She nudged his chin with her finger so that he’d meet her eyes. "I’m sure she’ll be able to help Diana too.”

 

Secretly, Lois worried about Bruce too. Clark hadn’t been there when Chloe died, he hadn’t seen how Bruce had withdrawn into himself. They’d nursed each other through the losses of their lives five years ago but Bruce had never made peace with his sorrow. He just walled it up, in the same place he had put his grief for his parents and disconnected from everything. She did not want to see him broken that way again.

 

If Diana died, it may well come to that.

 

******

 

Diana was absent for the furor that followed the November 17 terrorists attacks.

 

For weeks the media was filled with the news of the hunt for the group's members but November 17 had been a group veiled in secrecy and only, Bruce, Clark and Diana were ever aware of their affiliations with the war god Ares. It was all a cover of course.

 

The truth of the events in the three installations were considered classified and the world had no idea that a god had been responsible for the near annihilation of the human race. November 17 seemed to be the convenient scapegoats and there was enough blood on their hands to be culpable.

 

Bruce Wayne found himself a different kind of torture as he sought any news of Diana's fate. The days that followed left the dark knight distracted and irritable as the silence stretched into weeks and as it was Bruce's nature to assume the worst, he blamed the silence on the possibility that Diana had not survived her fight with Ares. The thought of her death was too much for him and Bruce refused to think on it and followed the safe course of withdrawing inside himself, so he could feel nothing.

 

Clark had did what he could to help but even the man of steel was limited in this instance. The Amazons had withdrawn from the Patriarch's World, cutting short their tour in the wake of Diana's injuries, citing the need to return home to attend to their Princess before further contact could be made. The bridge between the two worlds been closed and even if he wanted to go find her, Clark had no idea where to start. Furthermore, Lois had revealed that unless permitted, no man could cross the veil between the worlds to reach Themiscyra uninvited. Still Clark and Lois had tried to assure him that Diana was strong, that she'd make it but Bruce couldn't allow himself to believe it.

 

He’d given up believing in anything a long time ago.

 

To combat the despair that lurked in the wings when even his ruthless control could not abate it, Bruce threw himself into his work. He was out every night, immersing himself in the depth of Gotham's cruelty, leaving a trail of wreckage in the cities underworld. The Bat was on the rampage, the mob bosses and the scumbags were claiming and Bruce might have agreed with them, if he'd bother to listen.

 

On this particular night, he was on the trail of a designer drug dealing gang that had taken to raiding chemical companies to replenish their supplies. They’d already hit several factories in the last two weeks and had left dead, two night watchmen. Tracking the gang was exactly what Bruce needed to keep his mind of Diana’s absence. As he remained in the shadows of a large chimney stack, watching for signs of mischief in the facility, the rain pelted down hard, creating grey puddles across the grimy concrete courtyard.

 

He’d studied their pattern and was convinced that Axis Chemicals would be the next target of the Red Hood gang.

 

Despite the rain and the thick, grey clouds above, the moon could be seen in its fullness, its light bouncing off the wet ground. It was chilly in Gotham tonight and vapour from his warm breath battled to survive in the teeming rain. Patiently he waited until an hour had passed and then he saw movement. A group of three men made their way across the compound. One was tall, lanky and wearing a suit, with a bow tie and a cape with hood. The other two were shorter in comparison, one was thicker around the waist, the other carried himself like a younger, fitter man. He saw trainers, indicating youth.

 

The one in the hood, after which the gang was named seemed uncertain. He paused while his companions moved up ahead. They whispered but in this light and obscured by the rain, he could not read their lips well enough to understand what they were saying. The man in the hood followed reluctantly when suddenly, a strobe of light came out of nowhere, falling on the men like an accusing finger. An alarm went off and Bruce surmised that the security in this facility must have paid attention to the recent robberies of their contemporaries.

 

Bruce started moving forward, hoping to avert a shoot out which was what was going to happen if the plant’s security guard came on the scene. Leaping onto the nearest ledge attached to one of the lower building, was on his way to the compound to deal with the three himself when suddenly, he heard a voice shout from a door at the rear of the compound, exciting the situation into fever pitch

 

"YOU THREE! STOP!"

 

Terrific, Bruce thought sourly as night security and the whole affair went to hell. The two who weren't in the hood began shooting and Bruce flinched seeing one of their bullets catch a security guard in the shoulder. Reaching for his batarangs, he threw them in quick succession, piercing one in the hand, forcing the man to drop his weapon. The other landed on a knee, bringing him down.

 

"Get the fuck up Bob!" The young one in the trainers cried out, turning his head just long enough to see to his companion. However, when he turned back, he was just in time to see the bullet that caught him between the eyes and killed him where he stood.

 

Damn. Bruce cursed. He had wanted to do this without interference, without lives being lost.

 

Meanwhile, the Red Hood himself,  had no gun and was not trying to fight back but had taken off. Curious Bruce thought as he went after him and heard the man's muttering as he descended some stairs at the edge of the compound.

 

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Bruce shouted and as he moved across the compound, the light fell on him long enough for Bruce to hear one of the guards cry out. "Its the bat!"

 

If nothing else, it shocked them from thinking this was the goddamn wild west show, allowing Bruce to go after the Red Hood. As he went after the man, he heard a frightened voice muttering, in a frantic chant.

 

"I shouldn't have done this! Oh Jeannie, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I keep screwing up!"

 

There was a pathetic edge to the voice that made Bruce question how this could be the leader of the Red Hood gang. The man's terror had forced him to keep up a good pace and he was nearing one of the waste treatment pools were residue from the various units in the plant facilities were dumped before distillation into the a more benign form before being purged into Gotham River. At present however, the water was a toxic sludge that was extremely hazardous.

 

The Red Hood cared for none of this, running straight across the railings surrounding the foul smelling water from plant workers. He was searching for any escape and Bruce realised that he might be frightened enough to think that treatment pool could give him a way out of this place. Reaching for his grappling gun, Bruce saw the man near the edge.

 

"Don't!" He called out preparing to take aim, "that water is toxic!"

 

However, the man's response was near hysterical gibberish as the Red Hood turned and saw him coming. "Oh God, what have you sent to punish me! Oh God, please don't let it get me!"  He mumbled to himself.

 

Jesus, the man was becoming unhinged and Bruce fired the grappler at the Red Hood but the man denied him the rescue, plunging into the greenish grey water and disappearing into the depths with a splash and loud turgid bubbles. Bruce almost went after him but the suit would not protect him and he could hear sirens screaming in the distance as more and more people flooded into the scene. It was more attention than he liked and as he tried to spot the Red Hood in the fetid drink, there was nothing left to do but leave.

 

Reluctantly, he withdrew, resigning himself that his meeting with the Red Hood would have to wait another day.

 

*****

 

The last thing Diana remembered before surrendering herself to the will of Oneiros was seeing Bruce above her. Though he wore his mask, she could imagine his eyes. She thought she tasted his tears. She wanted to tell him not to weep, that his earlier words were true, even if he did not believe himself. He would endure if she died, he would cherish their time together, just as she would carry him into the Elysian fields of the underworld with her. She’d wait for him to join her.

 

Perhaps for him that might be enough, Diana knew for her, it had to be.

 

After she succumbed to the grace of Oneiros, her dreams became disjointed and vague. She thought she dreamed she was home in Themiscyra, submerged beneath the crystal waters of the river Antianeirai, where many of her sister drew water and bathed. She was floating within its blue depths staring at the sun above, admiring the dance of light reflecting on the surface as tiny fish with silvery bodies swam past her. It look beautiful and transcendent.

 

The injuries she’d sustained in her battle with Ares, seemed less, Antianeirai’s cool embrace doing its work to diminish her pain until it felt distant. Her senses seemed dull but she worried little for she was home with people who loved her. She heard voices whispering in her ear, telling her that she had fought bravely.  They told her to rest and listen to the voice of rejoicing about her, to revel in the celebration she had brought about by defeating Ares and giving them all a future. Diana listened but paid little attention to this. She had done what was necessary and if she was finished so be it.

 

But she wasn’t finished and when Diana awoke, two weeks later to find her mother and Menalippe at her bedside, she learned what had transpired since she’d succumbed to her injuries in the Patriarch's World.  Menalippe revealed how she’d been returned to them by the son of Krypton. Kal, Diana thought with a little smile, the closest thing she’d known to having a brother. A very different relationship than what she’d been accustomed to with her sisters on Themiscyra but no less dear to her.

 

Diana learnt that upon return home to Themiscyra, a vision from the gods had told the high priestess that Zeus himself had decreed that Diana’s life should be saved. Under their instruction, she had been placed in the waters of the River Antianeirai in the forests of Themiscyra. Once there, Poseidon’s servants, the Nereids, had healed her battered body.  Her mother and her sisters had waited for two days by the shore as the Nereids did their work,  praying and maintaining a vigil for the return of their champion.

 

When she was returned to them, she was whole and they had brought her home to the palace, placed her in the room she had slept in since childhood and waited for her to awake.

 

Once awake, Diana felt renewed and it was good to feel her mother’s embrace once more, to hear the laughter of her sister at play, at work, going about the business of life. She had been the only child born to an island of women and they all cherished her. In her youth, she had many teachers and while she was their champion now, she was also their child first. After the harsh, brutality of the Patriarch’s world, Diana was overjoyed to be home.

 

For awhile.

 

It soon became clear that her mother wished her to remain on Themiscyra permanently. That with the madness of Ares now passed, there was no need for her to return to the Patriarch’s World, where so much danger and corruption existed. Diana accepted this because Hippolyta was not just her mother, she was also her queen and Diana was conditioned to obey her demand.

 

Except she still missed Bruce.

 

Try as she might, Diana could not forget him. She could not forget how he quickened her heart when he kissed her, the memory of it warm on her lips. She thought about his true face, the one who had danced with her, who had rescued her from the frenzied reporters that night. Nor could she forget than when she had faltered, it was Bruce that made her remember what she had been born to do. Even though she was stronger than him in flesh in every way, he had surprised her by the strength of his will and how vulnerable he was because of her.

 

However, Diana knew her mother feared for her in the Patriarch’s World and her duty to her people came first, no matter how much it hurt not seeing Bruce Wayne again.

 

*****

 

"She flies but she does not soar.”

 

This, Menalippe observed of her princess when she looked up into the sky and watched Diana flying above, lacking the usual exuberance with which Diana took the air.  Riding next to her queen, the high Priestess and Hippolyta were astride their mounts, taking their daily ride along the shore when they came upon the Princess in flight. Diana’s flight seemed adrift and Menalippe had recognised a sadness in the young woman’s eyes that had been present for longer than just today.

 

"She misses him,” Menalippe declared, aware that this was a truth that her queen had been purposefully ignoring though it was obvious everyone else.

 

"She’ll forget him in time,” Hippolyta said stiffly, not wanting to discuss the subject. However, her friendship with Menalippe was based on their ability to speak honestly with each other and on this occasion, the high priestess did not disappoint. Whether Hippolyta wished to hear it or not.

 

Hippolyta spoke with a mother’s heart, Menalippe understood but Diana was no longer a child. She was woman grown and a champion proven. Diana had saved them all and had earned the right to make her own choices. "My Queen, it is not a sin for her to love a man. Our perception of them has been clouded by the brutality of Herackles. Things have changed in the Patriarch’s World, perhaps not entirely but enough for us to have seen men and women building a life together, in love and harmony. If Diana wants that for herself,  we have no right to deny this.

 

"I will not hear this,” Hippolyta retorted, preparing to dig her heels into her horse’s side so that she could put some distance between herself and Menalippe’s infuriatingly well reasoned words. "She is a Princess of Themiscyra and an Amazon, I will not give her up to be some man’s chattel.”

 

"Diana is your daughter and would never give her heart to someone who would treat her so but my queen,” Menalippe said kindly. "We have lived more than any mortal has been allowed.  We have been out in the world and we’ve seen it. It is our choice to return home to Themiscyra to live as Amazons. Diana is young, she’s not had the benefit of time as we have Should she not be given the same chance to make her own choices.” With a pause, she added, "My queen, we both know that it is not Diana’s destiny to remain here on Themiscyra,” Menalippe pointed. "It never was. She needs to return to the Patriarch’s World.”

 

"And to him?” Hippolyta shot back but there was a hint of concession in her voice that had not been there before.

 

"If that is what she wishes ” Menalippe nodded, "yes.”

 

Hippolyta’s answer was to dig in her heels and sent her mount bolting forward, away from Menalippe and the truth she didn’t wish to hear. The High Priestess took no offense, knowing by now that when the queen responded in such a way, it was usually an indication that she had reached the right decision, even though it trouble her.

 

Menalippe gazed into the sky and watched her Princess fly and muttered softly, "be young Princess, be young.”

 

*****

 

It was a month.

 

A whole damn month and it felt like the entire world had forgotten she’d ever existed.  The world that she saved continued as it always did, quick to forget that she almost died to save it. There were times when Bruce Wayne wondered what was the point of it all. Standing on a roof top, looking at Gotham below him, he wondered if it was even worth saving. Gotham, bloated with suffering, diseased with crimes, did its people need a saviour or was it better to let it go to its end. There were times, he thought the latter, when it seemed like everything he did had the effect of a wino pissing in the drain.

 

What was he trying to prove? He’d never get his parents back. They were gone, destroyed by brutality as she was. His attempt to fight injustice had cost him everything. His soul and the woman he loved. If Bruce had been with her, Chloe might have lived. He could have been a father to their children, husband to her. Instead, he’d been in Gotham, perfecting the mechanics of his crusade and he’d lost her. Now he went on, feeling the weight of an never ending purpose crushing his spirit with each broken body he found, with each victim he thought he was saving.

 

What difference did he really make?

 

A gust of wind behind him and Bruce stiffened, expecting to see Clark when he turned around.

 

"Are you lost?” He asked with a hint of a sarcasm.

 

"No. This is exactly where I wish to be.”

 

Bruce turned around so sharply, he could have torn the cowl from the rest of his suit.

 

There she was, hovering just a little above the ground, her hair blowing lightly in the breeze, the moonlight bouncing off her shoulders while her costume gleamed. As magnificent as the first time, he saw her, Diana drifted to the ground, her feet touching down inches away from him. When she looked at him, he felt the granite heavy heart in his chest, feel just a little lighter.

 

"Diana...” he managed to say.

 

His answer to her name was a kiss. Diana closed the distance between them and pressed her lips against his, the yearning for him these past weeks now able to be satisfied.

 

When her mouth met his, it was as if she had never gone and Bruce heaved a breath before pulling her close to him, his cloak billowing around them as he took in her taste, her scent and the sheer relief of knowing she was alright, that she was here. 

 

Their kiss could have lasted an eternity, Bruce lost all sense of time when their lips met but when he pulled away, it was only a minute or so.

 

"You’re alright,” he said, lifting a gauntlet to her face so that he stroke her cheek. "I didn’t know if...”

 

"Kal did the right thing,” Diana smiled, leaning into his palm. "He took me to my sisters, they brought me home and I was healed.”

 

"I’m glad, I was worried.” He admitted, underplaying how distraught he’d been, how empty his life was knowing she might be dead.

 

"I know,” she nodded, sensing his relief in the passion of his kiss. "I am sorry to have worried you but I am here now and I won’t go anywhere.”

 

"You’re staying?” He asked.

 

"In the Patriarch’s World yes,” Diana nodded again. "Menalippe says my destiny is here.”  She didn’t say with him but she was convinced he knew.

 

"Good,” Bruce replied, grateful for that much.

 

"Bruce,” she reached for his hands, both the one on her cheek and around her waist and squeezed gently, "I think we both understand that we will never be like other people.”

 

He did. She was right, she had a destiny in the Patriarch’s World, one far removed from his own grim crusade in Gotham. "Yes,” he admitted, though he hated to.

 

"We both have our paths to follow but I think there is nothing wrong if we occasionally take pause, to remind each other why we fight?” Her eyes looked at him hopefully and Bruce was reminded how young she was. He was her first love and there was something very male in him that was proud to be chosen. However, even though she looked at their relationship with the eyes of an innocent, she treated it with the wisdom of someone older.

 

He could live with those terms and in truth, perhaps it was better this way. Neither of them were normal people, not like Clark and Lois, who had fully formed lives beyond the personal of Superman. Bruce’s life was a mask that allowed him to do what he did as the Bat. Trying to shoehorn Diana into his world was unfair to her.. Furthermore, she had her own mission in the world and she did not need him to complicate for her.

 

"I would like that Diana,” he said pulling her back to him, taking the opportunity to share in that pause she spoke of, to remind himself why he did what he did.

 

Why he still fought.

 

*****

 

As expected, it was the first of the two visits on the roof top that week.

 

Clark found Bruce easily enough. One only had to find a screaming siren  rushing to a scene of a crime to know that Batman had been there. The police had arrived to find would be liquor store robbers trussed up to a lamp post after the 911 call had been logged. By now, Gotham had become as accustomed to its own nocturnal hero as Metropolis was to seeing Superman flying around the city.  Hell, a child had left him cookies on a window sill a few nights ago. Lois told him that he’d be giving Santa a run for his money. Clark tried to imagine Batman being left milk and cookies on rooftops, the image was disturbing to say the least. 

 

In any case, Clark had a reason for seeking out Bruce this evening and for once, it wasn’t because the world was about to end although he suspected that Bruce wasn’t going to be thrilled anyway.

 

"Hey can I ask you a question?” Clark asked announcing himself as he landed behind Bruce on the rooftop of a tenement building across the street from the liquor store. The dark knight was watching the arrest and ensuring that the injured store clerk was being taken away by the paramedics.

 

"You would like to know where you can get a map to Metropolis?” Bruce looked over his shoulder.

 

Clark gave him a look. "Funny, actually I wanted to know whether you get left milk and cookies.”

 

Without missing a beat, Bruce replied, "No, Santa.”  The man’s lips curled into the faintest hint of a smirk.

 

"You’ve been talking to Lois,” Clark glared at him through narrowed eyes.

 

"What can I do for you Clark?” Bruce asked, knowing Superman just didn’t drop by for anything.

 

"We saw Diana today,” Clark replied with a smile. "Lois and I  went to the opening of the new embassy in Boston. Diana said she’ll be in Metropolis next week for a few days during her good will tour.”

 

"I know,” Bruce retorted with a tone that indicated that Clark wasn’t telling him anything that he didn’t already know. Since her return, Diana had been working hard to build a relationship between the Amazon nation and the rest of the Patriarch’s World. Part of this included goodwill tours, where she visited cities, giving talks about the Amazons and delivering their message of peace. She was slatted to make a stop in Gotham too.  "So?”

 

"Well you know how Lois is,” Clark reminded, bracing Bruce for the worst.

 

"Mad Dog Lane? No, not a clue.” Bruce deadpanned.

 

"She wants us all to have dinner, you know a couples thing?”  Clark offered him a smug smile because he knew Bruce had as much trouble saying no to Lois as he did.

 

Now it was Bruce’s turn to stare. "You’re joking.”

 

"Oh come on, it will be fun. We can do mini-golf, get something to eat at Denny’s after..” Clark was exaggerating of course but it was worth the price of admission to see the aghast expression on Bruce’s face. He so very rarely got to unbalance the man.  "Look, since Lois and I have to keep our relationship at work a secret as you know. So we can’t date like normal people. You and Diana are the closest thing to another couple we know...”

 

"Forget it,” Bruce declared even though he had a sneaking suspicion it was a futile gesture. Clark he could refuse, Lois was another matter entirely. 

 

"How bad can it be?” Clark pressed, enjoying Bruce’s discomfiture more than it was decent.

 

"I have blue kryptonite, I’ll use it.” Bruce warned.

 

"Okay well maybe not mini-putt putt then...”

 

Batman growled.

 

*****

 

He was able to look into the mirror without screaming.

 

Every time he stared at his reflection, he thought he might go mad. He thought he would die when he had jumped into the sludge. Fear had driven him but once he had sunk into the toxic depths and felt the stinging that made his flesh burn, he thought that perhaps this was his just reward. He had ruined everything in his life, destroyed the people he loved the most. Why should he live?

 

People used to laugh whenever he told a joke. He could captivate the whole lunch room with his antics. It made him believe he had talent, made him give his job as a lab technician to pursue his dream of being a stand up comedian. Christ, he was such a f**king child. What had he been thinking? Jeannie had taken the news with a smile, giving him the support he needed, telling him to chase his dreams. He never saw doubt in her eyes before that. He should have guessed that she was pregnant, that she worried about how they’d live if he failed.

 

Inevitably, he failed at his big dream and in the shit hole he’d left his pregnant wife, he realised he couldn’t support them. So he went out and tried to make it big. Found some men who needed his knowledge of Axis Chemicals to do a job. Big money they said.

 

You’ll have all the cash you need to set your old lady up.

 

He believed them and he agreed to their plan except that morning, Jeannie died.

 

The words uttered by the sympathetic policeman hardly registered. She’d been testing a baby bottle heater or something. There was an electrical short and she’d died. The baby, seven months old in her belly had gone with her.  In one moment, his family was gone. He tried to back out of the job but they wouldn’t let him and so he had went and that night, he turned into a circus freak with garish lips and bleach white skin. His hair almost green. He barely looked human. He could hardly stand to look at himself in the mirror.

 

Looking at the gun on the bureau, he knew there was only one thing to do. Time to check out before things got worse, before he really did go crazy.

 

"Would that be so bad?” The reflection in the mirror asked.

 

He stared at it in stunned horror. "Oh god...” he started to whimper.

 

"There ain’t no god buddy boy, haven’t you figured that out yet? They created God to explain the shitty things that happen to you. To put a label on misery by calling it religion. Life screws you over? Blame God, not the fact that you’re a complete screw up.” His reflection taunted him.

 

"Shut up!” He snapped, covering his ears.

 

"Go crazy baby, go bug-eyed, bugfuck crazy. Let it all go and just go with the flow! What have you got to lose? Everything that ever mattered is gone. You’re walking around like a clown on a standby, stop bending over and taking it up the rear. You can do any damn thing you want, just let it go. Let your mind slip. Once you take that leap, once you pull the joker out the deck, you’ll own the game.”

 

"NO!” He aimed the gun at his reflection.

 

His reflection. A clown on standby. Jeannie was gone. Taken by an electrical short. What a joke. If it wasn’t so damn tragic, it would be funny. He lowered the gun and started to laugh at the irony of it. Yeah it was funny, people dying every day, thinking there was a higher power that controlled all of it. There wasn’t. It was just random dumb luck. What a scam. Those people out there, they didn’t get it but he did now. He knew saw the truth. He got the joke.

 

He started to laugh, small giggles at first, building up like a mad crescendo until finally he laughed so hard, it felt like there wasn’t enough air in the room to breath.

 

He might have noticed that the reflection behind had changed shape, turned into fleeting visage of a goddess, full of spite and rage. Eris stared at her new creation, her own agent of chaos and discord.

 

Her instrument of revenge; wearing a harlequin’s smile.

 

THE END

 

Author's Note: As much as I would like to take credit for elements of this story, I have to give credit to where it deserves. Trinity was based on a mixture of the Perez run of Wonder Woman and some elements of Alan Moore's magnificent Killing Joke.  Those who haven't read these books, please go take a look. For me, Perez' version of Diana was the best iteration of the character ever and the Killing Joke speaks for itself.

 

 

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