Aspire to Touch the Sky
by betty

Aspire to Touch the Sky

betty

Summary

The residents of the Blüdhaven retirement home didn't care that their rescuer came from an age of myth; they were just glad she was able to reach the fourth floor where the firemen could not. But when she flew through the smoke with Mrs. Kelly in her arms, the cameras were waiting. With the dramatic arrival of Diana, who some are calling "Wonder Woman," the island of Themyscira rejoined the modern world. Talks between the Amazon Nation and Washington in the last week have been kept quiet, but a source close to the White House suggests a surprising announcement may be forthcoming--

Notes

I am indebted to: maelithil for Greek picking and beta, jamjar for betaing the heck out of this sucker, and believe me, it had plenty of heck, and [info]rubynye for sending me to the Sappho when I was ready to chuck my computer out a window. You'd have thought it would be obvious, but no. Bruce quotes Sappho twice, it should be fairly apparent when.

Imported from Archive of Our Own. Original work id: 1544.

Chapter One

Princess of Lost Island of Women to wed in First Diplomatic Marriage of Twentieth Century

Princess of Lost Island of Women to wed in First Diplomatic Marriage of Twentieth Century

Classicists Stunned; Distraught

Classicists Stunned; Distraught

Clark Kent, Foreign Affairs

Clark Kent, Foreign Affairs

The residents of the Blüdhaven retirement home didn't care that their rescuer came from an age of myth; they were just glad she was able to reach the fourth floor where the firemen could not. But when she flew through the smoke with Mrs. Kelly in her arms, the cameras were waiting. With the dramatic arrival of Diana, who some are calling "Wonder Woman," the island of Themyscira rejoined the modern world. Talks between the Amazon Nation and Washington in the last week have been kept quiet, but a source close to the White House suggests a surprising announcement may be forthcoming-- Continued on A4

The residents of the Blüdhaven retirement home didn't care that their rescuer came from an age of myth; they were just glad she was able to reach the fourth floor where the firemen could not. But when she flew through the smoke with Mrs. Kelly in her arms, the cameras were waiting. With the dramatic arrival of Diana, who some are calling "Wonder Woman," the island of Themyscira rejoined the modern world. Talks between the Amazon Nation and Washington in the last week have been kept quiet, but a source close to the White House suggests a surprising announcement may be forthcoming-- Continued on A4

The State Department had insisted on installing the entire entourage in one building, for security. The hotel is empty, except for her people, and government men with wires down their collars. It's faintly ridiculous, Diana thinks, that they are called "Amazons," and yet man's world treats them like children.

"I forget, sometimes, that you're no longer my little naked frog, given to me by the Gods and the sea."

Diana smiles over her shoulder. "Mother."

Hippolyte pets her daughter's hair. "This thing you are doing--"

Diana knows if she shows any doubt now, her mother will call off the plan, never mind the loss, so it's easy to say, "It was my idea, mother, to rejoin the world. My plan."

Hippolyte laughs, gently. "My little frog, making plans!"

"Mother!" Diana twists around.

"I'm sorry, I'll leave you to your sleep. Do you not find the beds of man's world far too soft? Though I suppose you will get used to them."

She's never gotten used to her mother making reference to her bed sport, and she feels her blush rise. "Mother!"

Hippolyte squeezes her about the waist and laughs into her hair. "Good-night, daughter. I love you."

It is not until her mother has shut the door, leaving her in her ugly hotel suite that she lets herself move through the battle forms. Her mother would have recognized the activity for a sign of tension. She has to move the ridiculous furniture to one side to get room, but once she can move through a form uninterrupted, she feels it bring the familiar clarity.

Until it is interrupted by a sound from the balcony. She spins, identifies the intruder, and then, irritated, turns away, refusing to give him her full attention.

"Princess," says the Batman. He says it with a mocking tone she's only heard from her other prospect.

"Do you know," she says, still turned away, catching her hair up in a thong, "we do have bats on Themyscira. They are actually quite pleasant creatures. Small and inoffensive."

"My intent was not to offend," he says, sounding nothing close to apologetic.

The man is insufferable. She had thought their first meeting would have put her on good footing with him. Without her help, she does not think it is possible he could have evacuated the building in time, and yet even then he tried to scold her. "It is normal custom among your people to accost a woman in her chamber to discuss foreign policy with her? Or do I mistake your intent in coming here? Perhaps you have come to apologize for your behaviour earlier?"

He doesn't even acknowledge it. "Your people have spent millenia training at war, and now you want to embrace peace? The League will keep an eye on you, and your people."

"My people... We know the cost of war, and so we value peace."

people

"Spare me the press release. It's a mistake for this country to accept an ambassador who isn't even of the same species as the people she represents."

Diana reins in her fury, turns to face him. "I am my mother's daughter," she spits, biting off each word.

The Batman's tone is politely sceptical, but the politeness is only another insult. "You can snap a man in half, Princess."

"And this is a reason not to pursue diplomatic relations?"

"Is that a threat?"

If he sounded even a little worried by the prospect that would be... something. "Thank you for your opinions, man-who-hides-behind-a-mask. If you are quite finished?" She wishes she knew if he could fly so she could throw him out her window, but the possibility that he climbed remains.

"You are making a mistake about Bruce Wayne," he says, without any introduction.

For a moment, she's breathless at his gall. "You know him, then?"

"He's from my city."

"Your--"

"He's a spineless coward, a fool, a shallow, vain, useless idiot. He was so frightened by his parents' death he's never grown up."

She's taken aback, and oddly, a little disarmed by the real venom in his voice. "You-- has he done you some harm?"

The Batman's laugh is dark and ugly. "Him? Impossible. But he's no fit husband for you, Princess. He's a philanderer, always in some lie."

"He's dedicated himself to helping your city. Why do you--"

The Batman's cape snaps like a snarl. "He treats my city's symptoms while I fight the disease."

"Why are you so dismissive of a good man? I've seen the dossiers your bureaucrats prepared--"

"If you think those files tell you the whole truth--"

"And you do?"

The Batman is silent. The noises of the traffic grid rise from the city below. "No. But I'm not lying."

It feels like honesty, and she's loathe to disrupt it with accusations. "Do you advise me to marry Luthor, then?"

For the first time she actually sees him move, an abortive jerk toward her. "No! Not for... Wayne is a joke, but Luthor is... " She imagines she can actually hear sincerity in his voice now. "Princess. The only good reason to marry him is if you intend to use him ruthlessly, because he would do the same to you."

"It may come as a surprise to you, but I place certain meaning in vows I make," she says stiffly.

Batman unfolds his arms, and smiles pleasantly. "I don't trust you at all, but that comes as no surprise. You would be straightforward in your deceit."

Wayne, or Bruce, as she must now think of him, is not what she expected. The meeting is discreetly arranged by a rabbitty man from the State Department. She had supposed they would try to arrange the meeting in a romantic setting, but the bureaucracy has no romance in its soul. They meet in the corridors of an office building, in a nicely impersonal lounge painted white, with inoffensive stuffed furniture, and mediocre but inoffensive paintings decorating the walls.

"My God!" he says, when he sees her, and then seems worried. "Or would I have to adopt your religion? Because I'm Catholic. Well, really more of an atheist. An atheist Catholic."

The rabbity man struggles to paste a smile over the wince. "I'll just give you some privacy." He leaves the foyer, glancing backward nervously.

She moves forward and reaches for his hand, and after staring a moment, he gives it to her to shake. "Mr. Wayne, thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

His smile is wide and quite sincere. She hopes. "My pleasure, your highness!"

"Diana, please."

"Well then, you must call me Bruce!" He seems happy at this prospect.

"Now, this is a bit delicate..." she gestures him into one of the stuffed chairs man's world seems so taken with, and takes one perpendicular to him. When he perches on the chair she realizes he's actually quite large for man's world.

Bruce laughs. "I'll say! I always thought an arranged marriage would be the only way I'd ever get to the altar, but I never thought the United States government would be doing the arranging!"

Diana wonders about the altar. Does man's world burn offerings after all? But she scolds her wandering mind. "Themyscira has long lived separate from men, as you know, and a symbol is required for us to rejoin them."

"Everyone loves a wedding," interjects Bruce.

"You would be doing my country, and yours too, I hope, a favour if you would consent to this," at the last minute, she cannot make herself say union and says, "alliance. But... I hoped we could see first if we were... able to like each other."

Bruce grins at her. "Your highness, I cannot see how any man could dislike you."

It's not smooth but it's sincere. "Thank you. The marriage I propose... I hope you do not feel I am belittling the union, but I propose mainly a marriage of convenience. I would continue with my duties as an ambassador, and I hope, not disrupt your life too much."

"Of... convenience?" asks Bruce. "You mean.... no ..." he twiddles his fingers with a puppy dog look on his face. "No uh. Relations?"

"If you prefer. I must admit to a certain curiosity about how... relations with a man would be different, but you needn't feel compelled. I only meant that I would expect discretion from you, rather than fidelity, and would give you the same."

relations

"Gorgeous," says Bruce smiling broadly, "where have you been all my life?"

The government men are, she realizes, attempting to nurture romance between her and Bruce, in their own way. The man with the blue stripe on his dark glasses keeps on suggesting historical sites she might want to visit. She's not sure how to tell him that the buildings they call "forts" look like a death trap to her.

Bruce seems to share this disinterest, which is a point in his favour.

It takes her only four days to decide that Bruce will do very well. He is not repulsive, she could take him to bed. He is not clever, but he is not as dumb as he pretends. He has nothing but goodwill for everyone. He takes pleasure in showing her New York, and she wonders how it will be when he is showing her Gotham, which he clearly loves even more.

Luthor wanders over to their table when they are in a restaurant. "Princess, a pleasure. Wayne." She cannot quite like, still, the way he says 'princess.' He congratulates them with apparent goodwill, although Diana protests that he is premature.

"No, no, I see which way the wind is blowing. Bruce, your good looks have won you quite the prize!"

Bruce smiles at him genially. "I sure prefer her to your lunch date." Luthor laughs and returns to a small man who is losing the hair on top of his head.

Diana absorbs this new information. On the island, they had sculptures of men, as well as hydra, centaurs, and other mythical monsters. She had never really considered the men to be attractive any more than she had thought of the cameleopard that way. But she supposes he's pleasingly symmetrical, and although he lacks any curves, he has a certain... regular angularity about him that she could get used to.

"What?" asks Bruce. "Do I have something on my nose?"

Her mother finds him charming, and beyond asking Diana if she can really live with such a stupid man for his mortal span, has no objections to the wedding. Superman stops in, once, and gives a long and circuitous speech, leading up to his congratulations. Diana wonders if he is a virgin. He asks if she is in love, and seems quite relieved when she stares at him in disbelief.

Batman appears on her balcony again, the night before the New York wedding is planned. She has finally escaped the congratulations of women who she does not know. She is considering going down the hall to sleep with Io when her window is opened with a faint sound.

"Here to warn me away from my groom?" she asks, idly stroking the bride gift given her by the first lady. The fabric is soft but the cut is impractical.

"Your interference in Gotham is unwelcome." Batman seems incapable of even pretending to make conversation.

"I have familiarized myself with your laws. You have no legal standing, and cannot prevent my marriage."

He makes an impatient sound.

"Gotham doesn't need your kind. Her criminals will only become more dangerous if you confront them."

Diana realizes they are having a new squabble. "I'm not interested in your ego, only in the welfare of my new home."

"Don't you dare-"

"However," she speaks over him, "I will concede that you have greater experience. I respect that."

"You have no idea what you're getting into," Batman growls.

"I--" But Batman has disappeared.

The wedding in New York quickly spins out of control. It seems every major world leader must be invited and the only place it can be held is in the park. The mayor offers security, with very ill grace, and then nearly refuses to allow her sisters to stand guard for her. A thousand white doves are planned to be released, but two dozen stifle in the van before someone remembers them. Everyone, it seems, has some wedding joke they wish to tell her, and even the one told by old Sophia ends with the groom's attempted escape. Despite this, Bruce remains in good humour throughout, although his servant seems a bit grim by the end.

The one in Gotham is presided over by an amiable old man. She had resigned herself to being bound in white cloth like man's world prefers for weddings, but Bruce had surprised her with a funny little man who made a dress for her that was quite comfortable, and for Io and Philippa who stood for her that were more like a suit of armour made in fine silk than anything else. Their temple was packed full with the leaders of man's world, and Bruce's adult son stands for him. She wishes she'd got a chance to get to know him. She hopes he will not dislike her.

His younger son is the ring bearer but has to be fetched out of the bell tower to do this duty. He makes a face at her, and Diana has the sinking feeling he will be the difficult one.

Superman comes to neither, although she invited him. He sends a delicate crystalline flower she does not recognize.

The President wishes to give her and Bruce a 'honeymoon,' a sort of retreat dedicated to Hymenaios, if she understands correctly.

"You should see America! As a gift from our people, anywhere in the country."

Bruce looks sideways at her, seeking her approval and says, "I had thought... Well, I have a little pied-a-terre in the Mediterranean. I thought Diana might like to see Greece?"

Greece is a revelation. Bruce speaks no Greek, so she must translate for him, but her Greek and the Greek spoken by the natives are only barely mutually intelligible. They laugh, and explore little towns, swim nude, and she takes him flying. She becomes a little fond of Bruce's phallus, and wishes she had a sister present who could laugh at her for this.

The Villa is smaller than she had truthfully feared, and is kept spotless by a pimple faced young man with a tragic expression. After they arrive, he only appears once to bring groceries. They don't miss him.

"Where did you get these scars?" she asks Bruce, fascinated. Mortals scar so easily.

He runs his tongue around her nipple. "I-- I usually say something about enjoying dangerous pursuits... but..." He hums into her skin. "Truthfully, I was... angrier than I knew how to... Doing stupid, dangerous things is my... I don't know how to stop," he confesses.

Diana pets his shoulder thoughtfully, and tries to imagine her beautiful, good-natured husband angry.

On the third day, aliens invade. It's everywhere on the radio and on TV.

"Bruce, I can't-- I have to--"

"Go," he tells her.

She puts on her armour, and is over Berlin in ten minutes. The creatures are pouring through a rent in the sky, and are shaped like nothing on earth, squat, over-long arms spiked and jointed in a way that mocks logic. They have their mouths open as if screaming, but no sound pours out and they mow through Berlin like scythes through grain.

"[Rennen Sie!]" she yells, placing herself between a one of the creatures and a group of screaming men, women and children. She didn't bring her shield, no time, but no time to regret--

And then there is the battle. They keep coming. One of them gets close enough to open up her thigh, but only one. She bludgeons one with the column of a collapsed building, decapitates another with her lasso, and when the Flash finds her, she's swinging the arm of one of the creatures as a club.

"Wonder-- woah! Uh, Batman says we need to leave the area."

"But the--"

"I've got the civilians, let's go!"

Diana punts the nearest creature as far as she can and takes off into the sky. Superman is streaking overhead and she joins him, "This way, Batman is-- you're hurt?"

"It's nothing. There's a plan? I can keep this up, but..." The city shows tracks of damage from the air, and the creatures are still moving voicelessly through the rubble.

"Batman got in contact with the dimension they came from. It's a miscommunication, but we have to--" Superman lands, continues, "contain them, and re-open--"

Batman steps out of the shadow. "And that's where you'll come in. Do you know the tensile limit of that lasso?"

"It has the strength of Mother Earth."

"I'll take that as a no. The rift will widen the longer it's kept open. Your lasso may be able to contain it, and stop it from engulfing Earth."

The Flash looks a little concerned. "May?"

It concerns Diana too. Batman sneers, "If you have a better idea, I'd welcome it. Let's get on this, people."

Holding the rift is nearly as difficult as fighting the creatures that came out of it. Superman and Flash chivvy them back into the rift. Batman, she realizes when an explosion rocks a monster back, is guarding her back. Knowing he's there, she can keep all her attention on the lasso. Never has it seemed so much like a part of her as when she is trying to keep the tension on it constant to stop the world from being unmade. The lasso sings a constant note and everything else is discord so that she doesn't hear him when he says, "Princess? Princess! Diana!"

"What?"

"Let go now!"

She makes her hands let go, and the lasso whips free and she falls to one knee. Her heart pounds and there is silence.

"Okay," says the Flash. "Does someone want to explain to me what's just happened?"

Superman lands. "Those creatures were vermin from another dimension. The inhabitants thought they could sweep them under the rug. J'onn convinced them to be a little more neighbourly."

"Damn, I hate it when people are bad neighbours," says the Flash. "Thanks for your help, your highness. We couldn't have done it without you."

Diana stands and starts to coil up her lasso again. "Thank you. I couldn't--"

"Those creatures turned out to be non-sentient. Something you could have waited to discover before using lethal force."

Flash looks somewhat embarrassed by Batman, and Superman gives him a sideways look.

Diana is dirty and exhausted and bleeding. "No," she says. "I couldn't. Human lives were in danger. I chose. I would choose the same regardless."

Superman looks halfway distressed, halfway appalled. Flash merely looks shocked, but quickly pulls himself together. "You're still bleeding. Can we--" His eyes flicker to Superman's, who glances at Batman.

Superman pulls himself together. "Can we offer you our medbay? Seeing how little we know of those creatures, it might be wise to get that cut looked at."

Diana looks at her thigh. She's still bleeding, and she oughtn't be, perhaps there was some venom on its claws. And she would be foolish not to try to make friends with the League, at least those of them who are friendly. "I would appreciate that."

Her leg is taken care of with a beam for disinfecting and a bandage. Superman, ("Call me Kal?" ) shows her the watchtower and its inhabitants with obvious pride. At last she is forced to say, "But I must be getting back to my husband."

Kal turns red. "I'm-- I forgot, your honeymoon. I'm so sorry, I--"

"Thank you for the tour."

Bruce has left a note in the villa, "In case we both survive, Wife, I've returned to Gotham."

When she reaches Gotham, a news crew is gathered on the front lawn of the Wayne Manor. Mr. Pennyworth has brought out folding chairs so they are not so much milling as lounging, but leap to their feet when she touches down.

"Wonder Woman!"

"Princess Diana!"

"Mrs. Wayne!"

Diana is now glad she made use of the Watch Tower's facilities. The cut is now only a faint red line, and it gave her a chance to wash all the cement out of her hair. "One at a time, please!" she says, words she learned early.

"Wonder Woman, does this mean you're now a member of the JLA?"

She holds up one hand, and the group quiets. "The JLA and I worked cooperatively, but my involvement was as a private citizen."

They clatter together again. "Did you-- Have you-- What did--"

"Gentlemen, ladies!" calls out Bruce striding across the grass. "If I might speak with my wife?"

Diana feels her smile become less tight. "Husband," she says, and isn't sure what to follow it with.

"Wife," says Bruce as if it's enough. He lowers his voice. "Do you want to talk to them?"

She grips his hand, and turns back to the crowd. "The embassy will have a statement ready in the morning. Thank you."

Once they're out of earshot, Bruce asks, "Will you be doing that often?"

She swings their hands, pleased by the way they bump against her hip. "Probably."

"I'm glad you're home," Bruce confesses, "Tim was about to try a slingshot and water balloons on the press corps. I think it's the television he watches."

Lane: First question. Why 'man's world?' Frankly, I feel a little neglected.

Diana: [laughs] I'm sorry, it's what we've been calling you for millennia, it's a hard habit to break! And it is the most salient difference between my society and yours. But I have met many wonderful women here, and you're right, it does them a disservice.

Lane: Your take on our society, then. Is it, in fact, male dominated?

Diana: I'm not able to judge a society, especially one I'm only an observer of. I've experienced instances of... extremely inappropriate behaviour, that to my mind, were occasioned because I am a woman. I can't say these are systematic. However, criticism of your society's treatment of its women has arisen from within, and I think these voices deserve to be heard.

Lane: While we're speaking of men, tell us about your husband.

Diana: He's really a wonderful person! [smiles, leans forward] I'm not sure if you're aware of all the good work done by the Wayne Foundation, but I couldn't be prouder to be associated with it. His foundation provides childcare for low income women, health care for at-risk women and youth, and is responsible for forty-two percent of community centres with Gotham. Do you have a ticket to the charity Gala we're having next week?

Lane: I'm afraid--

Diana: Please allow me to provide you with one.

Lane: Let's speak of your own charity work. The Amazon nation is opening up women's shelters across America. What do you say to accusations you're interfering where you're not wanted?

Diana: Not wanted by whom? Women's shelters across America are overcrowded. We're helping women who might otherwise have no choice, and we're certainly working together with the existing organizations.

Lane: Your husband, prior to his marriage, had a reputation as a philanderer. Now people are speculating that you're keeping him on a short leash. Care to comment?

Diana: What an unpleasant figure of speech! Unless it's meant literally? In which case, I must say, it's an extremely personal observation on which I cannot comment.

Lane: No comment on your husband's changed behaviour, then?

Diana: People tell me he was different before our marriage, but I find it hard to believe. I've never known him other than a thoughtful, considerate man.

The Green Lantern looks the worst of any of them. He has a split lip and his eye is beginning to swell closed.

"Join the corps! See the galaxy! Get beaten up by the grateful populace you freed from slavery!" he says, translucent green ice bag clasped to his face.

Diana looks over the city. People are everywhere, and she can see a dozen festivals that seem to have spontaneously formed in the streets. "An unfortunate misunderstanding, but we have done well here today. I am glad you asked me to join you."

Anikitiri, the rebel leader, smiles broadly at them all, showing her fangs. "Thank you all! You will be remembered as heroes in our songs, I promise you!"

Kal shuffles his feet, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Um. Really, we only took care of the orbital platforms."

"Will you stay for the banquet? You would do us great honour."

Green Lantern looks up at Superman. Superman looks at Batman. "There's an advantageous launch window in seven hours and forty-five minutes."

Anikitiri smiles widely. "Good! Princess, does this change your answer?" Her ears are pitched forward hopefully, making her scarred face seem momentarily approachable.

Diana smiles, "Indeed, and I am glad!"

Anikitiri's tail twitches. "If you all will excuse me? Gentlemen, Princess." She exits with a sashay in her hips.

"Does she scare anyone but me?" asks Flash. No one says anything. "Okay, I guess just me. What was that about, Wonder Woman?"

"She asked if I wanted to spend the evening with her, but I was not sure of our timetable." Superman's head whips around.

"You- does she know you're married?" asks Superman.

"You mean spend the evening spend the evening?" says Flash, at the same time.

spend the evening

"Kal," growls Batman, "I fail to see how the Princess' marriage is any business of yours."

Superman looks at Batman, face blank, and then turns back to look at Diana. "I'm sorry, that was-- I'm really sorry, that was really rude, it's none of my business."

Diana feels-- She had not thought that there were any in man's world whose disapproval meant anything to her, but there is still a feeling in her chest like panic or nausea that she is fighting down. "We have an understanding," she says stiffly, and then wishes she hadn't.

"Don't mind the boyscout, Princess," says Batman, sounding amused.

"Sorry," says Superman, blushing miserably.

"Wait," says Flash. "You mean... spend the evening?"

spend the evening

Diana enters through an unlatched upper story balcony window. The wing is mostly unused so she waits until she's on the main floor of the Manor's central wing, before calling out, "Husband, I'm home!"

The wrong voice answers. "Diana? Hey, Bruce isn't home!"

She changes her course and follows the voice into the library. "Richard? Have you been staying here?"

Richard is sitting at the desk and frowning at some paperwork, but looks up and grins at her. "I swear, it's not rude to call me Dick. I promise. Tim does it all the time." Diana raises an eyebrow, and Dick grins. "Okay, no, but Bruce does too."

Diana can't bring herself to do it, and makes a face. Dick laughs. "My land-lord is installing shelves. Also, I'm taking care of some stuff for Bruce while he's in... wherever he is."

"Richard, we haven't really had a chance to talk but--" Richard visibly braces himself for a Serious Talk, "but I'm glad you don't resent me. Thank you for being so... accepting."

"Hey," says Richard, fiddling with the book in his lap. "Bruce doesn't deserve you, but you're probably one of the best things that's ever happened to him."

"What?" asks Diana, surprised. She had judged Dick as completely devoted to Bruce.

Richard looks uncomfortable. "Uh, nothing... just, he-- Nothing."

Diana doesn't prod.

"Hmm," says Bruce, looking at the mail. "Morons."

"Alfred," says Diana, "I have married the wrong man. These crêpes are divine."

"Quite right, Madame," says Alfred. "When you tire of this bounder, you know where I am to be found."

"Morons?" she asks Bruce.

He hands her an unopened envelope. "R. W. Milhouse, writing, I presume, to beg you to wear one of their creations to the Gala."

Diana opens it with a clean table knife Alfred supplies from nowhere when he sees her eyeing her silverware. Bruce is correct. "So?"

"They do diamonds. You make anything but gold look tawdry." He says it as if it's objective truth.

"I-- Alfred?"

"Master Bruce has an exquisite eye for fashion, and I must concur that your colouring does favour gold."

"Oh," she says.

Sex with Bruce can be slow and tender or playful and exploratory by turns. They come together with the intent of pleasing each other, not of unmaking and remaking each other. The bright flare of passion with a copper tang is missing, but poor Bruce wouldn't know what she was doing if she ever came to him without her fires banked.

She misses her sisters. She supposes this is part of growing up.

The sixth time she fights with the JLA, Flash asks, "Why isn't she in the group? Does Hawkgirl know about our no girl-cooties policy?"

The silence that follows is merely awkward, but Superman looks appalled.

"I'm not really sure I can make the commitment-" Diana is beginning to lie when Batman says;

"She's an unknown agent with over a thousand fighters at her back who are setting up bases at strategic points all over America. Unless you want to come clean about your agenda, Princess?"

"Those shelters are for--" she begins, attempting to sound outraged.

"I thought not. If she joins, I leave."

"Good enough for me!" says the Hawkgirl, "she has my vote!"

"Your games are ridiculous, Batman, and I will have no part in them," says the Martian.

Kal covers his face.

The Flash's gaze darts to Batman and back. "I think it would be uh. Cool to have a princess."

"Very well," says Batman viciously, "Lets make it unanimous, she has my vote."

"Thank you for the very flattering offer, but I must decline. My loyalties are too divided already, another alliance is not possible."

Batman is the first to break the silence. "A pity. Your strength is more dependable than Superman's."

The Martian goes insubstantial and sinks through the floor. Batman takes advantage of the distraction to leave the room silently.

"Wow," says Flash. "I am so, so sorry I asked."

"May I walk you to the transporter room, Diana?" asks Kal.

Walking her there, he says, awkwardly, "Have we really... I suppose we have. Would anything induce you to change your mind about us?"

"I don't have a bad opinion of your league," she reassures him.

"Just Batman," he concludes, ruefully. "He's... He's a difficult man. If you had forced him to leave, I think no one would have ...questioned your right."

"I couldn't do that," says Diana, surprised.

"No?"

"I think... I think you are his only friends." She feels ashamed to have to say it, but it's inescapable.

Kal stops in the corridor. "Diana... I'm not sure I know anyone like you."

Diana was moulded from clay, so this is not a surprise, but his tone is.

When she meets Bruce at the top of the stairs, his eyes go to her throat, and she realizes she's wearing her mother's golden torque. She has to resist the urge to touch it self-consciously, especially when she remembers that her bracers are golden too.

He holds his elbow out stiffly at his side and she stares at it, confused, for a moment. He looks down at his elbow. "Oh, right. If one of us is likely to trip and fall to their deaths, it's probably me."

"I would catch you," she assures him, as they start down the stairs.

"This staircase has a lot of unused potential. Could you say, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn?'"

She obligingly repeats it back to him, copying his intonation. Alfred meets them at the bottom of the stairs with their coats. "If you remove the library curtains for any purpose whatsoever, Sir, your death will be slow. Is Madame familiar with the book alluded to?"

"Oh, this is a literary work?"

Bruce furrows his brows. "It's a book, too?"

"An epic romance set in the south of America, during and after the Civil War. We have a copy in our library." Alfred holds open the door.

"Richard won't be coming with us?"

"Dick's said he promised Tim a ballgame. Which I think means this is too boring." They separate to climb into the car. Limo, she reminds herself. It's important.

"I don't blame him," confesses Bruce. "If it weren't my charity ball, I'd skip it too. The people who come to these things are always incredibly tedious."

"Incidentally, Sir, Counsellor Kopf will be able to attend after all," says Alfred from the front seat.

"Kopf?" asks Diana.

Bruce frowns. "She's been resisting a zoning variance we need for our drop-in centre. Claims it will lower property values. Maybe you could charm her?"

Diana watches the moon through the dark glass. All of a sudden it seems ridiculous that she is riding in this enclosed carriage when she could be in the sky. She suppresses the thought. "Point her out to me, I'll make an attempt."

Bruce senses she's distracted and says no more the whole ride.

It's only homesickness, she tells herself, that makes the electric lights seem so harsh, the elevator ride so grinding, the music so wrong. She greets their guests and attempts to shake off her mood. She meets Lois Lane's partner, a large, shy man who Lois seems somewhat fond of, judging by her teasing and bullying, and then is forced to leave them to greet a hundred other persons of wealth and influence. The surprise is Luthor, who appears as the date of a giggling young woman.

"Princess. Or should I call you Mrs. Wayne?"

She thinks her smile may tighten a little at that, but otherwise, nothing shows. "Just Diana. I've gotten this far in life without a patronymic and never missed it."

"Just another bit of patriarchal nonsense you reject?"

"I would say instead that it's not part of my culture."

"And yet you've risen to the top quickly. You look ravishing."

Diana isn't sure which statement to be more insulted by. "Your people have been very generous to me. Excuse me, I see my husband trying to get my attention." Not well done, but if she had remained, she might have challenged him to a duel.

"Diana," says Bruce, drawing her a little aside. "We'll be expected to open the floor. Can you waltz?"

"I understood the word 'floor' in that sentence," she admits.

"Hmm," says Bruce and glances around. He catches the eye of Mr. Fox, and gives him a grin and then makes a hand gesture. "Okay, not a problem, Lucius will cover for us." He leads her behind a curtain wall, through the kitchen where they are watched, bemused, by caterers, and into an dimly lit empty room.

"Okay, it's a basic box step, with-- never mind." Counting out the beat, he shows her the steps, and then leads her through them. "Don't worry, you won't be expected to win any prizes, and I'll be blamed if anything goes disastrously wrong."

"Don't worry? But that's worse!" she protests.

"Is it? Well, never mind then."

He takes her around the room several times, by the end of which she has managed to stop attempting to lead. "You're much sturdier than my usual partners," he confides. "I always worry I'll snap them in half."

Since she has had precisely this worry on his account, she grins and says nothing.

As soon as she feels comfortable, they hurry back, and Lucius gives Bruce a look of outrage mingled with relief.

Bruce speaks to the conductor, a tune is struck, and Diana and Bruce manage without mishap. The only difficulty is keeping a pleasant expression on her face and not mouthing the count. "Anything else I should know?" she asks.

"Not really. You don't need to dance again unless you want to, just circulate. That's Kopf there, in the unfortunate blue creation, you'll see her on the next turn, by the table."

At the end of the piece, Bruce strikes up a conversation with a corpulent blond man, and Diana begins to make her way over to Kopf, stopping to exchange pleasantries on her way with professionals, politicians, and the idle rich. The music has changed twice before she makes it to Kopf, and the woman gives her a somewhat suspicious look, but her second sally, an observation on the brutality of fashionable footwear, meets with results and she is able to draw out the woman and learn more about her job. She is happy to discuss the frustrations of being a woman in her position, and Diana does not need to feign interest. Kopf leaves her for the buffet table in a good mood.

"They look good, don't they?"

Diana whirls around to see Lois' partner, somehow behind her. He nods to the dance floor.

"Oh. Oh my." She hopes colour isn't rising in her cheeks. "That's... not the waltz."

Lois' partner pushes his glasses up his nose. "No, that's um. I can't dance, they--" Bruce dips Lois low, without breaking eye contact, and Lois' partner hurriedly sticks out his hand. "Clark Kent! I covered your wedding."

Diana wrenches her eyes from the dance floor to give Mr. Kent her attention. "Do you write, as well?"

Mr. Kent looks quite embarrassed. "Yes, actually, for The Planet. And, uh, a few-- Don't they look good?"

The Planet

Diana is shocked by the intensity of her reaction. Diana does not say, I want to fuck them both. I want to fuck my husband while she watches, and then I want to make my husband watch me fuck Lois. That is not what her marriage with Bruce is supposed to be about. Instead she says;

"I am quite jealous of everyone who knows how to dance this music. They make it look so..."

Clark's mouth quirks. "Yes, quite." Clark is watching Lois and Bruce with a certain wistful softness, which she assumes is for Lois.

"You could learn to dance," she offers, "it's not impossible."

He looks amused. "I can trip over a painted line. And Lois doesn't have much patience for someone who steps on her feet. How are you finding Gotham, your highness?"

"On the record?" she asks.

Clark brightens. "Would you like it to be?" Somehow, he is much more bearable the majority of reporters.

"Gotham is a city with its share of social ills, and I'm encouraged to see people coming together tonight in a commitment to address those ills."

Clark gives her a somewhat comical turn of his eyebrow that says, bland, very bland, but says, "Yes, it's nice to see people come together for a good cause." She likes that little hint of humour in his eyebrow.

"Kent!" says Luthor, "quizzing the lady for your column?"

Clark adjusts his glasses again, clearly a nervous habit. "Mr. Luthor. What brings you to Gotham? It's a long way to go for charity."

"Not really," says Luthor dismissively, "not in my jet." He turns to Diana. "May I have a dance, Princess?"

"I'm afraid I don't know it."

"Good," he says cheerfully, "The next waltz, then. May I congratulate you on shelters your ladies have set up? Some might say establishing armed camps in major American cities--"

"Hardly armed," she objects.

armed

"--seems threatening, but I feel the benefit to victims of domestic violence is immeasurable."

"Thank you for your support," she says, without inflection.

"No, no! I mean, I can see why, for example, the League might question your motives, but I have nothing but admiration for your good work."

"The Amazon Nation is lucky to have you as a friend, Mr. Luthor."

"Please, call me Lex. Ah, I believe that's our cue."

Lex is actually a somewhat smoother dancer than Bruce, or perhaps she's no longer as self-conscious.

"I admit to being more than a little disappointed when you chose Bruce," says Lex as he steers her around the floor. "But I can't pretend he isn't perfectly suited to your goals."

Lex seems to be implying quite a bit, and Diana is fairly sure she doesn't want to know what.

"However," Lex continues smoothly, "I am a little surprised that you are willing to overlook his past."

Diana raises her eyebrow. "You have a past of your own, Lex."

"I don't deny it. And I'm sure none of the ladies were less than adequately compensated, but one does wonder what happened to the girls."

And the spite is impossible to miss, but she honestly has no idea what he's implying. She's not sure why she says; "What?"

"Well, some people think it's to his credit he adopted the boys. Not everyone would recognize a prostitute's child. But I do wonder if there's a girl out there he hasn't seen fit to adopt. The Wayne name doesn't need a--"

"Lex," says Bruce cheerfully, "trade you? I'd like a dance with my wife."

Diana steps back before Lex can protest, and grabs her husband out of his partner's arms rather more quickly than tactfully.

"I guess I was right," notes Bruce. "I thought you looked like you weren't having fun."

"That man," she says, as calmly as she can, "is poisonous."

poisonous

Bruce is looks over her shoulder as he executes as turn. "What did he say?"

"That you paid women for sexual favours."

Dip, and then turn. "Not... strictly untrue. I have given women gifts, and they understood by them that more would be forthcoming if they were sexually available. Nothing so crass as negotiation for currency took place."

This is not what she had expected to hear. Her husband should not need to compensate women for their attentions. Perhaps he makes demands of them he does not make of her, perhaps...

Bruce's hands are barely resting on her. "It's... I don't have to... worry that they'll start to care about-- It keeps things simpler."

Hovering above the water reservoir quickly brings her Robin. "Wonder Woman! Hey, what can I do for you?"

He reminds her of herself at that age, up a tree and hunting deer with a bow. Half still, and half eager.

"I would like to speak with Batman, if he is not busy."

Robin smirks. "Um. Okay, but he's gonna be pissy." He sounds amused. "Wayne Tower, twenty minutes?"

Diana flies there and tries to find the place inside her that this dissatisfaction is coming from. Is she disappointed in Bruce? Yes, a little, but for his use of those women, or for being too soft for her to lash out at him, she isn't sure.

Atop Wayne Tower, she is thirteen stories above where she danced with Luthor that night. Gotham is quiet, in its monstrously loud way, and the wind whips by snickering.

"Princess."

She doesn't turn around. "May I ask you a question?"

"If you're asking me to keep some secret from your husband, I'd rather you didn't."

"No, only a question that... I think might hurt him."

He makes a sniffing noise at that, and she wonders what he thinks of being called in as a go between. But he came, and that's good enough. "Ask."

"Bruce has taken in two boys. Richard Grayson and Tim Drake. I-- Do you know of them?" She turns. Batman nods. "Luthor told me... it's assumed that they are Bruce's children. Is that... true? Is it possible?"

The wind whips around them. Batman seems to hesitate over-long before saying, "It's not... possible for me to disprove it. Bruce Wayne's movements at the relevant time would be difficult to trace. All the same, it isn't true."

Somehow, it's a relief to hear. "Thank you."

She's anticipating his blistering comments on the waste of his time, but he's already thrown himself off the roof.

"Oh, good," says Bruce when she walks in. He's taken to leaving the window off the library unlatched for her. "I was afraid I was going to have to go to the opening ceremonies on my own, and those are deadly-- You're hurt."

Diana is as startled by it as he is. "I am?" She looks down and realizes she's taken a cut on her collar bone, which is stinging. "Hades." She wrinkles her nose and wipes it with her thumb.

"You've been attending a lot of these stupid things, you could stay home," Bruce offers, sounding concerned.

"Do you worry about me?" asks Diana. "I am sorry."

"No... well yes, but I-- This isn't something I didn't expect. I just find... I'm going to go get my suit before Alfred starts chasing me around with a bow-tie in hand."

"He is fearsome," Diana agrees, and goes to change into her dress. It is a black wrap, cut tight to display her bosom and slit to allow her movement. The cut on her collar bone barely shows, but when she rejoins Bruce he seems arrested by it.

"You," he says when he sees her, as if it were her name. "I have some pearls which would look nice with that, if you'd like to wear them."

He looks hopeful, and she knows how he likes giving gifts. "Certainly."

"Alfred," call Bruce, raising his voice to where the main waits outside the door, "Can you bring me the pearls for Diana?"

Alfred comes into the room. "I beg your pardon sir, did you say--" He meets Bruce's gaze, and turns on his heel and leaves.

"What..."

"I'm afraid they're in storage, but they've been taken care of."

When Alfred returns with the pearls and an inscrutable expression, Bruce takes them out of their case and stands behind Diana to fasten them round her neck.

"The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face," he whispers into her nape.

Diana busies herself with a tour of the Refuges. She meets many women, some with children, so baffled, confused, suspicious and she wishes... The Refuges are doing good work, as well, and she takes comfort in that. Adonia reports to her that they haven't found what they're looking for yet, but that someone has started a campaign of slander.

"And apparently we host lesbian orgies here, after hours," she says, amused.

"And I was not sent an invitation?"

"Well, you're a respectable married woman, now." She has nothing to say to this.

She takes advantage of Kal's invitation, and visits the Watchtower but fate has an odd sense of humour and Batman is at the monitors.

"Princess." He always says it like that, as if it's sufficient greeting.

"I'm sorry to intrude... I only came to see...," she fishes about looking for an excuse, "if Kal was available. I was looking for a sparring partner."

"I could give you a bout," offers Batman. Further grist for her theory that Batman is lonelier than anyone knows.

The offer is appealing, but, "Forgive me, aren't you... human? I might hurt you."

He smiles. "You may try."

It won't be like sparring with Kal, but she has sparred with her sisters, and a good fight may help strip this dissatisfaction from her muscles. Batman changes some settings on the monitor equipment and then leads her into the Tower's gymnasium.

At the first clash, she realizes this will be nothing like her bouts with her sisters. He is determined to meet her strength to strength, and is willing to use explosives if necessary. She remembers belatedly that he's mortal when she throws him into a wall, but he tucks and pushes off it with his feet and comes back at her. Fifteen minutes later, they are still circling, she's breathing heavily and feels alive.

She suspects that she could end this by closing, where Batman will have nothing to oppose her with but the strength of his arms, but she is reluctant to. Her blood is pounding and she knows she is showing all her teeth in something only a little like a smile.

"You could benefit, Princess, from learning a wider range of martial arts," says Batman, pretending he is not out of breath.

"Knowledge is only part of a warrior," she says, catching a batarang on her bracer. "The other part is passion."

"Hnf," says Batman, or possibly that's just her foot in his gut.

She pins him against the wall, and feels his chest heaving for breath, and his breath on her ear for a moment, before she is wracked by pain and thrown to the floor. She hisses, and then Batman is on her with a blade to her throat.

"Do you yield?" he asks. There is something about the way he struggles to pretend he is not out of breath, and instead of saying what she ought, she brings a hand up and settles it above his hip. The blade at her throat doesn't move.

"I did once think you lacked the passion," she confesses.

She can feel his chest compress and expand under her hand. "I..." he says, and then folds away his blade, and brushes a lock of hair away from her face.

She rolls them and pins him. "Do you want to do it here, or somewhere more comfortable?"

His mouth falls open, and it looks, not soft, but as if she might, with determination, soften it. And then he looks away. "Forgive me, Princess, I-- gave you the wrong impression."

Surprised, she leans back. "Did I misunderstand?"

"No," he says, and now there's a touch of humour in his voice. "But I'm not... I can't... I have certain-- rules."

"Please tell me you are not sworn to celibacy," she says, before she can remember that she needs to learn to be accepting of the religious practices of others.

He snorts. "No, not that."

She should get off him, but he is pleasantly solid beneath her, and his armour is hard in the right places. Her blood is risen and doesn't want to give up the illusion of his heat against her. She gathers her composure.

"May I ask... are you and Kal lovers?"

"No, we-- No." He meets her eyes now, and she imagines she can see a twist of humour in his mouth, which she is sure is directed at himself. He manages to look as if he's perfectly comfortable to be lying on the floor with an Amazon sitting on his middle.

"You would not object if I were to approach Kal?" she asks.

"No, but... He is very dedicated to someone else," Batman says. He puts his hand where hers had been, above her hip. She wonders if he knows he does it.

"Bah," says Diana in frustration.

The humour in his mouth is now directed at both of them, she senses. "Flash is single," he offers.

"He's a child!" she objects and then the oddity of the conversation hits her, and she is hit with a fit of giggles.

Batman is smiling now, and she wonders how many people have seen it. It's a smile like a knife, but she rather likes it. "Well, thank you for your efforts in procuring a lover for me."

"I'm sorry," he says, which is not quite the right thing for him to have said, and she's not sure what comes next.

She stands and offers Batman a hand up, but he is already on his feet.

"Princess," he says seriously, "Will you tell me what you and your people are doing here?"

"Learning about man's world, working toward justice between men and women," she says, feeling cold.

Batman leaves without another word.

She watches Shayera and John play at war in the sky. They seem sufficient to each other. She loops around them once on her way home, but doesn't try to join their game.

She wishes to take another lover. She doesn't. Bruce seems merely surprised by the aggressiveness she can't keep from their love-making, but she feels ashamed of herself. It would be different if it were honestly intended for him.

Bruce, bless him, sensed something amiss, and lets her have her space, but she catches him watching her when she's at the manor.

One evening when she's struggling with Gone with the Wind, he comes down to the library and asks, "Diana, do you want children?"

Gone with the Wind

She nearly drops the book. She so shocked she nearly says, certainly not with you, but recovers herself in time. "In a... vague and distant way, perhaps?"

Bruce's relief is almost comical. "Good! I mean uh. I'm glad to hear--"

"Sir, Madam," says Alfred, entering without his usual polite cough., "There's trouble in the Boston refuge. Someone's been killed."

Diana is out the window without waiting for further details. The Boston Refuge was put under Lydia who taught her how to ride. She can't believe that-- Lydia's too tough to be be dead.

There's nothing visibly amiss when she sets down, but when she enters, her sisters all swarm to greet her.

"Thank Hera, Diana! Diana, you heard?"

"Cynara, What happened? Who was killed?" she asks, tugging at Cynara's wrist to pull her from the crowd.

"Oh, just a man. But the men think Lydia did it and they've taken her to the police station."

"Don't say just a man, he's got the same right to live as any of us."

Cynara scowls. "I don't see how you can say that. He's repulsive. He raped his own children."

Diana has a sinking feeling she understands the situation. "Their mother came to you for shelter?"

Cynara's face shows a tight-lipped distress. "She was so terrified of him."

terrified

"Cynara," she asks, "Can you tell me that none of us did this?"

Cynara considers for a moment, which Diana finds more comforting than a reflexive denial. "No, none here would... I don't know if you've heard, but he was flayed. There's some here would cleave him in two if he showed up, and I'd not blame them, but none who would hunt him down and mutilate him so."

"Flayed," says Diana.

Stern Cynara, who had showed Diana how to clean the entrails out of animals taken in the hunt, looks queasy. "His... throat was cut, and he was hung, and ... Well, they're going to realize soon he was done up like a sacrificial animal, but Diana, you know none of us would do a thing like that."

It's the worst kind of sacrilege she can think of, and Diana is too appalled to think for a moment. "No...," she says, slowly. "None of us."

She checks to make sure Cynara has the situation in hand, and then heads for the police station.

The officer at the desk recognises her and scowls. "You'll have to wait." The building is so tediously bureaucratic that Diana can only imagine Lydia being tortured with boredom, she settles into a hard plastic chair, and waits.

The phone at the front desk rings, after a few minutes. The policewoman picks it up then stares at it in surprise. "It's for you."

She's actually expecting it to be from Cynara, but the bass voice immediately disabuses her. "Princess."

"Batman," she says, startled.

"The murderer left footprints on the rooftop of a nearby house. Stride indicates height of six feet. I've drawn this to the attention of the police."

"I'm five eleven," she says, idly.

"I hope you have an alibi, then, Princess."

"Yes," she says, thinking of Bruce and then, "Rather, I don't know. When did this happen?"

"Coroner says between fifteen and seventeen hours ago, I'm inclined to think closer to the latter."

"The coroner... Are you going through their files?" she asks.

files

Batman sounds offended. "Of course not. I'm eavesdropping."

"Thank you for telling me this," she says.

The line goes dead.

She hands the phone back to the officer at the desk, and sees Lydia coming down the hall.

"Lydia!" she calls out and runs to sweep her up in a hug.

Lydia thumps her arm. "Put me down, girl." Diana does and then sees the man behind her.

"Ambassador, I'm Lieutenant Anderson. I hope there isn't going to be a diplomatic incident over this."

"Lieutenant. Is Lydia under suspicion?"

"No, Miss--" the officer looks annoyed at not being able to use a patronymic, and Lydia rolls her eyes, "Lydia was just helping us out with some questioning."

Diana walks Lydia back to the refuge, and stays there for the evening. The atmosphere is tense, like the morning before a hunt. They all have their suspicions about the murderer, and it means they're drawing near to their goal, and that they are all in danger. Diana has never been so proud of her sisters as now, when they minister to battered woman without letting any hint of this through.

She's in Gotham, visiting one of Bruce's projects when it all comes to an end.

"Wonder Woman," says Flash, appearing at her side suddenly. "The League could use your help."

"Go see your mother, now, sweet," whispers Diana to the girl she's holding, and sets her down. "What is it?"

Flash pulls out a medallion on a chain. "Does this mean anything to you?"

Diana takes it, and recognizes the symbol. "I need to get my sword."

"I can get you one from the watchtower." He shifts his feet. "We're kind of in a hurry."

"No, I need my sword and shield, they have been sanctified and dedicated to this purpose. Where do I meet you?"

"Washington monument, and hurry."

Diana does. She doesn't even land at the mansion, instead flying though the corridors. She sees a flash of Tim's surprised eyes and then she is gone. She prays to Hermes as she flies and she thinks he hears her, because she's never flown so fast before.

Washington is large but all roads lead to the monument. The streets are deserted, except for furtive runners heading for her goal. She passes an overturned tank, and then a panicked horse. A cordon has been set up in front of the White House, but the soldiers are holding their fire as the people ignore them. The lawn is covered in people. Green Lantern has constructed a fence around the monument, and outside of the fence, hordes of people press, clearly not in their right minds. They throw themselves repeatedly at the fence, singly and in groups, howling out their rage. Diana flies over them to join Batman and J'onn in the shadow of the monument.

"I can see their rage," says J'onn, "but their minds are dimmed as a lama's in meditation. I cannot--"

"Princess."

"Where did you get that medallion?" she asks, before drawing a breath.

"Off one of them," says Batman, jerking his head toward the group. "He came to his senses immediately, but was nearly pulled to pieces by the mob as soon as the chain snapped."

She looks around. Superman is swooping down from on high, picking a person out of the mob, snapping her chain and setting her down behind the line manned by the National Guard. He's fast but the mob is still growing.

"There's... there will be an altar, with a dog on it, or possibly a vulture, somewhere. If we can find that altar and clean it, I think his influence will be broken."

"His?" says Batman.

"How much area do we need to search?" asks J'onn.

"I do not know," Diana admits. "What... what happened to trigger this?"

"We were investigating increased gang violence in-- Forest Heights. Which would make that area a good candidate. Flash."

Flash appears. "Yeah?"

"Go to Forest Heights, look for an altar with a dog on it."

"I... a dead dog," he says, as if hoping that he has misunderstood.

Batman gives him a level look.

"Okay."

"Flash, wait!" calls Diana. "You would smell burnt meat, too."

"Sorry," says Flash, "I don't really breathe when I'm running." He blurs from sight.

"Hawkgirl," says Batman into his comm. "Can you use the the Watchtower's computers to check the phone logs in New York, Forest Heights? Residents may have called to complain. Yes. Smell of burnt meat." He seems to be talking to himself. "Flash, try Leverett Street."

Green Lantern joins them, a trail from his ring connecting him to the barricade. "So, what the hell is going on?"

Batman's gaze flickers over Diana and then back. "We're dealing with a follower of Ares, possibly a cult, right Princess?"

"No," says Diana, and then realizes she has answered his question. "No, not a cult. Ares. Himself. He is loose in the world."

"Well, shit," says John.

"This is not your battle," Diana reassures him. "I am the only one who may face him."

"No," says Batman, like a knife. "You're very wrong if you think the League will let you fight this one on your own. Not only the Amazons have a stake in this."

His mouth is tight and she can't help but think that line of tension is there just for her. She shakes it off. "I will not be by myself. My Gods will be at my back."

"Batman's right," says Superman, touching down. "I can go with you. I don't let my friends face angry gods alone."

"No," says Diana frustrated, "Don't you understand? He's a God."

God

"I hope my lack of belief offends him," says Batman with a cheerful edge.

"You fools," says Diana, genuinely angry now, "Hephaistos forged this sword and Athena gave it her blessing. Will you go up against him with your throwing sticks?"

Batman shows all his teeth, "Now, Princess, I can't share all my secrets."

all

Kal gives Batman a dirty look.

A sudden confusion of talking, and movement as Batman says, "Flash has--" just as Flash arrives and says:

"Okay, I found it and kicked everything over and threw the dog in the Potomac," and the crowd suddenly regains their wits and quiets their snarls only to begin a panicked babble as several thousand people find themselves pressed together with strangers in the middle of a field.

Superman rises into the air. "Everyone, the League has taken care of the force that was controlling your minds. Please calmly and carefully return to your homes."

Then the people start screaming and running, as a line of fire appears, unfurls open into a circle and Lex Luthor steps out.

"Princess," he says.

"Call me Wonder Woman as these people do," she forces out between lips that feel like stone or, she doesn't let herself think it, clay. "Did you kill that man?"

Diana is no oracle, but even to her sight, Luthor is tinged the red of divine possession. "Lex Luthor doesn't seem to get your attention," says Ares, smiling, "but death does. It makes a God feel unappreciated."

"Luthor," says Superman in disbelief. "How can you have ..." Perhaps he does not see Ares in Luthor, as she does.

Ares' eyes flicker only briefly from Diana. "Let us settle this, Wonder Woman. None of my sisters or brothers would come, but you came. I swear I will abide a contest of arms."

Wonder

Diana spits. "I know the worth of your word."

"Let go of Luthor, Ares," says Batman, as if he has no fear of gods. "Humanity doesn't need or want you."

"No?" Around them the world transforms. The grass beneath their feet becomes smooth flagstones, broken by the rubble of columns, the monument becomes an altar that reaches to infinity. The sky is black scarred with a red glow which lights the area dimly and the ground beneath Diana's feet feels warm as if it covered a fire. It is just the six of them.

Green Lantern mutters, "This is nowhere in the universe," and J'onn says, "Hronmeer!" and grows spikes.

"I can't feel the Speed Force," Flash hisses, which sounds bad.

"What do you want?" shouts Kal.

Luthor is growing and when she isn't looking directly at him, she thinks he wears a helmet. "Yield to me, woman!"

"Yield to your betters!" she yells back.

He throws a ball of fire at them which grows as it travels, and the League scatters. Kal tries to cool it with his breath once he's safely out of its path, but the fire continues unaffected until it spatters against an upright column, which falls and shatters.

"Woman, yield!"

Superman whistles out of the void and impacts against Ares with both fists. Ares skids back a dozen paces without losing his footing, and flings Superman back into the void. The Green Lantern slaps a block on top of Ares, but Ares catches it, and grows, and grows. He is taller than any building she's seen in man's world now.

"Distract him!" she calls, hoping someone will hear her, and runs out to hamstring him. His feet are like galleons, and she braces her sword over her shoulder and flies to sever his tendon. The blade parts his God-flesh, but it's like sawing an oak and it takes all her strength to push it through.

Ares bellows like a bull and falls to one knee.

"Whore! Foul-- What have we here?" His tone changes from outrage to gloating, and Diana suddenly fears... she doesn't know, but flies upward, toward Ares' face to see him holding the tiny figure of the Batman, who drops free from his cape only to be caught with Ares' other hand.

"What were you going to do when you had climbed my altar, little mortal?" asks Ares, mocking.

"Batman, don't--" She isn't sure what she would tell him not to do, and she's still not close enough.

"I was going to piss on it," says Batman, in the most honestly pleasant tone she has ever heard from him.

Batman is flung away, and Diana races, as does J'onn, but he crashes into a pillar with an unpleasantly wet noise. And then the pillar falls on top of him with a crack.

"Meet me on the plains of Marathon at sunset, you cunt, and we'll settle this," and with a wave of his hand, Ares banishes them back to Washington.

"Is everyone all right?" calls the Martian.

"I'm... fine," says Diana, checking to make sure it's true.

"I'm sorry," says Superman, appearing with a sonic boom. "I couldn't get my bearings, it was like there was nothing-- And then a second ago I was in Iowa. Where's Batman?"

"I think he was killed," Diana hears herself say.

"No, that's not-- J'onn?" Superman sounds, for a moment, like a child.

"I believe his neck was broken. I sensed... his soul dimming."

Diana swallows. "I hope his neck was broken." Flash darts a horrified look at her, but John explains;

"As opposed to-- Well, almost anything. It would be faster."

"How long until... sunset, in Greece?" she asks, and then realizes Batman is not going to answer. A moment later, J'onn does too.

"I believe you have sixteen hours, give or take."

"He's not..." Superman seems to be in shock, and the same expression is on everyone's face. Diana feels mortal, and tired. She wishes she could meet the God now, and end this stupid-

stupid

"We need to tell his people in Gotham," she realizes.

"Diana... everyone," says Kal. "Come to the watchtower. There's something you need to see, first."

"He recorded this?" she asks, uncomfortably. The steel feels like a tomb for a Titan, although she's never thought of it that way before. "For only me?"

"I... if you'd like me to watch it with you?" asks Kal. She pulls him close into an embrace before he has time to protest, and presses her face into his hair. "You have someone who you love, Batman told me," she whispers. "That is where you should be now."

Kal draws a shaky breath. "Rao, I wish..."

wish

Diana lets go of him and steps back.

"Press here to start. That's all. Come see me if you need someone to... hit. After." Kal leaves her alone with the empty screen.

Grief takes everyone differently, but Diana does not feel the need for violence yet. She presses the button.

Batman's face fills the screen. "Princess. This was recorded in the eventuality that I died or lost communication permanently with you before we could settle-- Before I told you the truth. I'm sorry." He pushes back his cowl.

"Kal," says Diana brightly, re-entering the room. Kal flinches. "Do you have another screen I can watch the rest of the message on? I seem to have accidentally stabbed the other one with my sword."

"Yeah," says the Flash despondently. "He always made me feel that way too." He wipes the back of his fist across his face. "Poor Bats. I can't believe, it you know? I expect him to jump out and say boo at any time."

Hawkgirl whacks him across the head. "Don't say it," she hisses.

Kal stands and shows her another room with another screen. This time she watches the whole way through, even though her knuckles go white from gripping the hilt of her sword. Then she blows her nose and goes to find her mother. She has fourteen hours.

Hippolyte folds Diana into her arms as soon as she sees her. "Ah, my little frog, I never wanted you to grow up, and this is why," she whispers into Diana's hair. She tugs Diana with her into her room, and pulls her down onto her bed.

The room is quiet and for a long time, Diana doesn't have to think. There is only a faint electrical hum and her mother petting her hair. Eventually, she gets a crick in her back.

"Bruce is dead," she says into Hippolyte's bosom, "and I want him to be alive so I can run him through."

"Ohh!" says Hippolyte, making a noise of distress that Diana knows is all for her daughter's pain and none for her son-in-law's misfortune.

"And in twelve hours I have an appointment with a God."

Hippolyte's arms tighten. "Let me go, let me send a champion, Diana, they can't object! You're our only daughter, my only--"

"Mother. You know what I'm fighting for. I'm our best chance."

Hipplolyte pets Diana's hair again. "You should try to sleep first. You can use my bed."

Perhaps because she has been betrayed once already today, Diana realizes how easy it would be for her mother to simply leave her sleeping while the sun rises half a world away.

"No," she says, "I... I have to go tell his sons."

She flies over Gotham for an hour before she finds Nightwing. When she settles down to watch him disarm a drug dealer, she feels a lump rise in her throat. His motions, which should be smooth, are jerky, like watching a puppet Nightwing pulled on strings.

He taps the criminal on the forehead with his stick and the man crumples. Nightwing says without looking at her, "I don't believe it."

"Richard," she says, helplessly, "Dick, I saw it."

saw

He swings around, "Listen," he says, punctuating with a stab of his finger. "You don't know him. He-- He could-- He's not dead, okay?"

"I have to go kill Ares, now, Richard. Will you-- Will you take care of Tim?"

Nightwing's face softens a little. "Yeah. Yeah of course. But he's not dead."

She lets him swing over the fence and leave. She's running out of time.

She's slept three hours when she stands on the plains of Marathon. She chose a pasture with no sheep in it, because she'd like to spare what innocents she can.

As the light of the sun slips from the earth she stands on, a line shimmers and then opens into a gate in the earth, dark stairs carved into stone. She starts down. When the dim light of twilight is cut off, she continues in the dark until a torch lights her way. The light from the torch fades completely before she finds another one.

She has passed seven torches before the stair stops descending. She is in a cavern with a low ceiling, and if Ares wants to hold the fight here, it will at least keep him from abusing his size. Across the cavern, a huge fireplace blazes inset in the wall, casting a circle of light that illuminates very little but throws everything into dancing shadows.

"Diana. A champion of clay. I wonder that my father is willing let me kill you. I would think he had a better use in mind for that body."

Ares' eyes are glowing out of Luthor's body, making him easy to locate. She makes a mental note to allow for the possibility he may close his eyes at some point.

Her sword has been out since sunset but she raises the tip now and settles her stance. "Will you submit to the judgement of your peers and return to your confinement?"

He laughs. "My peers? Pissing themselves in terror at the idea of an electrical engine? Swear yourself to me, little girl, and you may be spared."

Diana approaches him, staying low.

"Did you know I fucked your mother, once?" asks Ares. "No, I lie, much more than once. She was insatiable." He's turning to keep her in his field of vision, which means that at least he's worried.

Diana tries to get a feel for the size of the space, illuminated as it is by flickering lights. Ares casts more shadow than he ought, and dark patches leap where they have no business being.

She spirals in closer, sword at guard, and Ares leaps to meet her, slashing down with a great two handed sword she hadn't seen a moment ago. Her shield meets it and catches it, pulling him momentarily off balance, and she slashes for his knees.

She knows herself over matched, but dying is not an option. She dearly wants his death. He killed not only Batman, but her gentle husband as well, and she will avenge both of them.

"Is this how they teach girls to fight on the island?" he asks, laughing. She parries and thrusts, and stomps his kneecap.

She fights. Her sweat runs into her eyes, and breath comes tighter and tighter. She takes a wound on her shield arm at the shoulder and it hurts every time she has to raise it. Luthor is shorter than her but Ares is taller, and her opponent's height shifts with the flickering fire light.

Ares strikes her a ringing blow in the temple with the hilt of his sword and she stumbles back, shakes her head and realizes that she's getting tired, while he isn't.

isn't

It infuriates her that he will win this fight because he is a God and she is... not. Her mother and sisters are all depending on her, and she does not know what she will say to Tim if she cannot tell him that Bruce is avenged.

She shouts and comes in close, trying to user her height against him but he's towering again, full of godhead.

"Little girl," he hisses, and she drops her sword and loops her lasso over his head. "What, will you tie me up in string?"

girl

Diana launches back and lets the lasso settle around his shoulders, and then pulls, trapping his arms at his sides. "This was your grandmother's before it was mine."

Ares sneers, and she yanks, pulling him off his feet. Faster than she can think, she makes slack in the rope, and loops it around his wrists then pins him with a knee in his kidneys. He curses her but she ignores it like she has from the beginning, and reaches to catch up her sword again.

"Diana, don't!" says Batman, from the dark.

"What?!" she cries, alarmed but also annoyed, "must you vex me even in death?"

"I'm not dead," the darkness says back, sounding aggravated. "A broken rib isn't fatal. His pretend world wasn't made of real matter, you know."

The god beneath her spews more vitriol. "Zeus," she calls, "come for your prodigal son, I have done all you ask!"

Silence, even from Ares, and then he flickers and fades and leaves her lasso empty on the cavern floor.

Diana stands and recoils her lasso. Batman's voice came from the direction of the fire, and that is where she finds him, chained to the wall next it, in the shadow of an outcrop. She can't decide what to say to him and instead steps forward and squeezes him tightly.

"My ribs," he grates out.

"You deserve it," she says into his hair. "You could have let me know you were living when I came down the stairs."

"I didn't want to distract you," he protests.

"I ought to crush your larynx," she says, touches her nose to the underside of his jaw.

"I take it Kal showed you the video then," he says, sounding annoyed.

"You said I 'surpassed the stars like the setting moon over the sea.'."

"I may have become somewhat sentimental contemplating my death,"he says, but not with conviction.

Diana presses herself closer to him, fits herself against him, breathes in his sour breath. "I am divorcing you."

"Okay," says Bruce, sounding somewhat dizzied, "but can you unchain me?"

When she snaps the chain holding his arm above his head, it becomes apparent that in addition to his broken rib, he is nursing a badly sprained ankle. He insists his boot can be stiffened to make a walking cast, but Diana sweeps him up and will brook no complaint.

"Hmm," says Bruce, looking over her shoulder as they climb the stairs. "The steps are disappearing behind us."

Diana doesn't look. "I suppose our marriage was all part of a cunning plan of yours?"

"It seemed a good way to keep an eye on you. Sorry."

When the third torch sputters and dies as they pass it, Bruce says, "I tried to warn you about Bruce Wayne."

tried

"I will drop you," Diana warns him.

will

As they pass the fifth torch, Diana says, "I should have trusted you with my quest."

"You knew he could be hiding in any man," Batman says reasonably, which is very irritating.

"Yes, but I should have been able to tell... Or... no, you are a very good liar."

"Yes, I am," Bruce agrees.

"I mentioned the divorce?"

"You could get an annulment for marriage under false pretences," he offers helpfully.

"No, thank you."

When they come into the sun, Diana wonders how long it has been in the world. Superman is standing there, grinning.

"B-- Batman!" he says, and leaps forward, then realizes how awkward it is to hug someone in someone else's arms, then does it anyway. "Are you all right?"

"Ngh!" says Batman.

Diana releases Bruce and then resettles the strap on her shield which has been digging into her shoulder since she sent Ares back to his prison.

"Put me down, you idiot," says Batman. "I can't believe you showed her the video."

"J'onn said you were dead!" protests Superman.

Batman leans on Superman and rests his weight on his near foot. "Well, he never did approve of this entire charade."

"Have you been waiting here long?" she asks, looking at the angle of the sun.

"Well, a tour group discovered Luthor naked on top of Mount Olympus about twenty minutes ago, which seemed like a good sign," he says.

"Robin, this is B checking in," says Batman.

"Diana," says Kal. "I should... let me tell you about Clark Kent."

EPILOGUE

"Have you seen Wonder Woman?" Flash asks Green Lantern, who is sitting at the monitor with his feet up, reading a magazine.

"I think I saw her going into the trophy room. Why?"

Flash looks awkward. "Well, you know. Now that she's a JLA member, I wanted to congratulate her."

"Now that's she's divorced, you mean," says Green Lantern under his breath, but Flash pretends not to hear it and sets off looking nervously hopeful.

Flash comes reeling back less than a minute later. "She's in there with Batman!" he complains.

"So? He won't stop you from..." Flash's glassy eyes register with Lantern. "You mean...?"

"How does he do it? Do you know how long it's been since I got laid?" asks Flash.

"Please don't tell me," says the Green Lantern.