The Kill:

A/N: I don't own any of the characters. They all belong to DC Comics. I originally intended this as a one-shot, but then the idea kind of grew. I borrowed the titles from a 30 Seconds to Mars song called The Kill.

Come Break Me Down:

What kind of beast was this? Diana looked at the devastation before her disbelievingly. Kal was bleeding from several wounds and sweating profusely. Metropolis was in ruins around him. It was beyond belief. The monster seemed to be made entirely of stone and driven towards nothing more than absolute destruction. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. She flew in and blocked a blow from the creature that was aimed at Kal, trying to gain him a moment's respite. Great Hera, it was strong! She flew backward a couple hundred feet before catching herself. She had never witnessed such strength as this. Even being prepared for the hit she felt as if she were being struck with a battering ram. The monster roared and suddenly she had his entire focus.

"Diana, no!" She heard Kal yell from behind her.

She wanted to go to her friend and check on him, instead she had to ignore him. The blood worried her. There were few things that could make Superman bleed without kryptonite. This monster was one of those things and now it was planning on hurting her. She had more strength than most people, even some gods, but not Superman. If he could be hurt, then she was vulnerable as well. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted by her friend's injuries. All of her focus had to be on the massive creature before her. She felt herself move automatically into a defensive fighter's stance as she prepared herself to do battle.

The beast swung his massive fist at her and she flew out of his reach and flew in quickly to land several punches to his head. She winced inwardly at the pain in her hand as she felt the skin of her knuckles split. She thought he looked at least a little stunned, although it was difficult to tell when a face that was literally made of stone. She flew up quickly trying to buy herself even a moment to catch her breath, wanting to get as much space between her and the thing as she could.

She stopped abruptly in the air and suddenly found herself going down quickly. She looked down in surprise at his hand now holding her ankle in its vice-like grip. How had he recovered so quickly? Forget that, how had he caught her? He had to have jumped at least a mile into the air to grab her. She felt her ankle crush in his fist and couldn't prevent the cry of pain that escaped. She tried to brace herself as she felt him swing her into the ground. Instead of letting her go after the first blow he held on to fling her into a nearby building.

She could feel herself flying through the air and tried to block her head as she went head first into the building. Her head pounded and she felt her skin open on her forehead, at least she prayed it was just the skin. She could feel her eyes swelling up as she swiped at the blood that was starting to flow more freely down her face. She looked to the sky and saw a blue streak fly at the monster. She hoped she had bought him enough time to heal himself even a little. A beam hit her in the head as it came down and she fought to hold on to consciousness. There was no way it was healthy to take so many hits to the head. She wanted nothing more than stay down and assess the damage to her body. She needed to give herself some time to heal. Instead she pulled herself out of the stone and the wood, feeling as if every bone in her body was broken.

She saw Kal take a hit and go flying and flew at the monster when it was distracted. She managed to knock it back into a building and this time flew higher to stay out of his reach. She flew back in and knocked it back again, taking down another building. She hoped that they had managed to evacuate all the buildings in the area, but it wasn't something she could concern herself with at the moment. The people of Metropolis would be a lot worse off if they weren't able to take the stone monster down and that was looking less likely as the fight went on. They had never lost. Individually they had their weaknesses, but fighting together they always won. That it could beat Wonder Woman and Superman together was unthinkable. He had to at least be getting tired after going a couple rounds with her and Kal and yet she couldn't find a discernible weakness to take him down. How did you damage stone?

The beast shook the rocks and debris off himself as he came at her. Other than her and Kal she couldn't believe that anything could have gotten up from that. She felt her first frisson of true fear. She flew up as high as she could, but in with the head injuries as well as the broken bones she had sustained she was unable to move as quickly as usual. She saw his jump and tried to add the last of her strength to getting out of his reach. She felt his hand curl around her ankle again and the searing pain that came with it. Suddenly she felt utterly mortal. All of her strength and fighting abilities were useless against it. It couldn't be beaten, but she was realizing that she could be.

She looked at Kal as she felt herself being flung into the ground with even more force than the last time and tried to convey with her eyes how sorry she was. She felt the ground open underneath her with the impact. She watched with detachment as Kal grabbed the creature and flew up and up and up. She sent a quick prayer to the goddesses for Kal and Metropolis' safety. She wasn't feeling pain, and knew that should bother her. With all her injuries she should have felt something. She lay in the crater her own body had created and looked up at the sky. The world was starting to turn red around her. Surely that was odd. Wasn't the world supposed to go black before you lost consciousness? She shook her head, trying to gain some kind of order to her thoughts and that was when the pain came. It was blinding, but it kept her in the world. She pulled herself from the crater with the last of her strength before finally collapsing to the ground. She fought to raise her head and saw the Justice League looking up at the sky where their friend and leader had disappeared.

Bruce stood a few feet away from them in his dark cape and cowl, always the loner. Instead of watching their friend and team mate flying into the atmosphere, as the rest of them, his penetrating gaze was fixed on her. She looked into his dark eyes so different from her own clear blue. It was always said that the eyes were a window into the soul and she knew that he was seeing hers completely at that moment…her shame at being defeated, her fear for her friend who was now somewhere miles above them, and more…everything that she had always wanted from him, but had never gotten. Now she never would. She tried to read something from his eyes, anything to give her some idea of what was going on behind the mask. His gaze was unreadable. As usual he was complete mystery to her.

A loud whistling sound came from above breaking her from the intensity of Bruce's gaze. She watched as an unconscious Kal crashed back down to Earth. The world shook when he hit the ground and then everything was still. She struggled to keep her head up, waiting for him to give some sign that he was ok. He didn't move. She heard Lois's anguished cry from behind her as she rushed past. What would they do in a world without Superman or Wonder Woman to protect them? She looked at the Justice League standing around them in shock. It was going to be up to them now. Finally her eyes went back to Bruce, who for once wasn't hiding behind the impassive expression of Batman. For once he let her see the fear and yes, the love. At least now she knew how he really felt. It was so unfair that she should have to leave now.

She felt the tear as it fell down her cheek, mingling with the blood streaking her face. The last of her strength finally gave out and her head hit the ground. Her eyes closed as she felt a searing pain rip through her head and then down all the way to her toes. She fought to hold on, to get up, to go to her comrades and friends….to Bruce. If she could just get her body to cooperate...

Another wave of pain wracked her body. She shuddered with the force of it and then she was still.