Chapter 6

Diana Prince sits in Metropolis' Central Park enjoying the sunshine. She had dressed up in her disguise so she could get some fresh air. Hiding out in a bunker was not doing her sanity any good and it was under enough strain as it was due to her dreams of Kal-El...of Kal. In her dreams she is always calling him just Kal. The scary part of it is that some part of her longs for that type of intimacy. She has always felt a little alone, a little detached from everyone. She isn't like anyone else. Not even her fellow Amazons. Not really. She is a golem. A lump of clay the gods breathed life into and to which they granted gifts of strength, speed, flight, beauty, wisdom but despite all those gifts she has always felt a little lonely. She felt she was missing something or someone. Someone to share her life with. To hold and comfort her.

She tried to obtain it by dating Bruce but it became obvious that they were too different. That too much separated them. She looks around the park and can see the odd couple walking hand in hand, smiling, laughing. She lets outs a sigh. How she wishes she had someone to do that with. Of course what she is witnessing is also highly ironic. A month ago no-one would have dared to be in this park due to Luthor's regime but now that they were living under an alien occupation people somehow deemed it safe to come out to the park again.

"You know. You are not an easy person to find."

Diana stands up instantly and turns to face that voice. "Donna?!"

Diana's little sister stands there dressed up like a typical Metropolitan with a cylindrical bag on her back. She had been looking for Diana for days. "Mother says hello."

Diana moves quickly and gives her sister a bone crushing hug.

"Whoa. Easy there sis," Donna complains.

Diana lets go. "I'm sorry but I was surprised. What are you doing here?"

"Why do you think? You left a brief message that the world was about to be invaded and that if they manage to discover us we should not fight them and that you are off into hiding until you, and when I say you I mean you and the Justice League, find some way to defeat them. That was 3 weeks ago. Mother is frantic. I haven't seen her this worked up since the first time you told her you had started dating men."

"Man. It was one man." Diana feels the need to correct Donna.

"Yeah. Whatever. Anyway since Mother was on the verge of coming to find you herself I volunteered myself arguing that I knew the world better than she did."

"I did not mean to cause Mother so much worry."

"I know you didn't Diana but when your message mentioned invulnerable aliens you can't really expect Mother not to worry."

Diana lets out a breath and heads back to the park bench. Donna sits down next to her. "I was just telling her what Hal told me about them."

"And? Are they?"

Diana nods. "Yes they are. They are also strong and fast and they fly Donna."

Donna's eyebrows rise at the fly remark. "Seriously?"

Diana nods once more.

"Wow. They are like demi-gods or something."

"That isn't an inaccurate description," Diana admits to her sister.

Donna looks around. "No offence but things seem better than I remember," she comments comparing it to the last time she was out in the world.

"They killed Luthor the first day they got here and put General Lane in charge."

"Okay," Donna says really slowly not quite sure how she should react to that. "But things could be worse right. I mean they aren't burning cities to the ground or anything."

Diana has to concede that Donna has a point there. Apart from the new laws that were issued things aren't so bad. "No they aren't burning cities but we're no longer free. We are now citizens of the Kryptonian Empire. We are living under an occupation."

"And you and the others are going to do something about that aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Is that wise?" Donna asks with real concern.

"We are being careful. We have been in hiding since they arrived, biding our time, looking for weaknesses," Diana explains to her sister.

"Found any?"

"Not yet," Diana admits. "But we are hoping to get some more information soon."

"When you say soon what do you mean?"

"Tonight. We are going to infiltrate one of their bases tonight and see if we can access their computer systems."

Donna shakes her head. "Mother is not going to like this. She wanted me to persuade you to come home."

"I can't Donna. I have to be here. I think I am meant to be here."

"What does that mean?"

Diana takes a breath. "You may not remember me telling you this but a couple of years ago I think I mentioned to you an odd dream I had."

Donna thinks back and then shakes her head. "No sorry. Can't recall that."

"Doesn't matter," Diana says as she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. "Well the dream involved a strange man I had never seen before," she tells Donna as she unfolds the piece of paper and hands it over to Donna. "This is what he looks like."

Donna looks at what is a hand drawn image of what she would say is a very attractive man and she is now having a vague recollection of Diana mentioning this. "Who is he?" she asks her sister.

"I didn't know. For years I dreamt about him and never knew who he was until 3 weeks ago."

"Why? What happened 3 weeks ago?"

Diana reaches into her bag and pulls out a copy of the Daily Planet and hands it over to Donna. "This is the copy that shows the leader of the Kryptonian forces addressing the UN. Look at the picture."

Donna does so and then compares it to Diana's hand drawn image. "By the Gods. It's him." Donna looks at Diana. "What does this mean? That you knew what was going to happen."

"No," Diana says emphatically. "The dreams never showed me that this was going to happen. They never showed me anything beyond his image. At first I barely remembered the dreams but they got more frequent and intense until now..." She trails off.

"Until now?" Donna queries wanting Diana to continue.

"Now all I have to do is close my eyes and I can see him Donna. I can barely get a decent night's sleep because the dreams are so intense."

"Intense how?"

"They are rather...explicit."

Donna strangely breaks out into a grin. "Explicit?"

Diana frowns. "Why are you smiling?"

"It is just that you are so dull I never imagined you could come up with erotic dreams."

"Donna!" Diana protests. "That is not helping. I don't understand why they are explicit. I don't understand these dreams at all and none of the Gods will answer my prayers and explain them to me. I'm going insane trying to work out why I am having them."

Seeing the distress her sister is in Donna puts her arm around Diana's shoulders. "It's ok Diana. I am sure there is a reason but if I may ask why not just go to the source."

"What? You mean go see him?"

Donna nods.

"Donna I can't."

"Why not? If they are so bad that you can't sleep, that it is affecting your mental health you need to deal with it."

"It isn't that simple Donna. He is the leader of these Kryptonians. How would I even get near him?"

"Ok you have a point there," Donna concedes. "So what are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can do. Help the League in creating our new resistance movement."

"And what do I tell Mother?"

"Tell her you tried very hard but that I refused to abandon the world to its fate. Besides there is no guarantee that Themyscira will remain hidden forever. This way I am helping drive these Kryptonians away before they find our home."

Again Donna has to concede that Diana has a point. So far it seemed these Kryptonians couldn't penetrate the magic around their home but there was no guarantee that that would last. "Ok. Truthfully I thought you would say something like that so I brought you something." Donna hands over her bag to Diana. "Look inside."

Diana unzips the bag and looks inside and lets out a small gasp. "Donna. Did you steal this?"

"Borrowed. I borrowed it," she corrects Diana.

Diana runs her hand up and down the metal blade of what is in the bag. It is her mother's sword. The one Hephaestus forged for her. "Donna do you realise how much trouble you will get into when Mother finds out?"

"Yes but you need it more and don't say otherwise. If you are planning some raid tonight who knows what you may face."

"Donna we will be sneaking in, getting the information we need and sneaking out. We aren't going to be fighting anyone."

Donna scoffs loudly. "Oh please. How often do these plans actually work in reality. I've heard it all before Diana and you always end up having to fight your way out. You know it. I know it. So please take the sword. Maybe it's blade can hurt these Kryptonians."

Diana contemplated that for a moment. This sword could kill Gods. It made sense she supposed that it might be able to hurt these Kryptonians. "Ok I'll take it. Thank you and when Mother finds out tell her to take it up with me."

Donna shakes her head. "No Diana. I appreciate the gesture but I have to take responsibilities for my own actions. I'm seeing exile to solitary confinement for about a century."

Diana smiles and then gives her sister a hug. "Ok but when this is over I will come home. You can assure Mother of that."

"I will. Anything else you want me to tell her?"

Diana thinks for a moment. "Just that I love her but this is something I need to do."

"She isn't going to like that answer."

"I know but it is the only one I can give."

"Take care," Donna tells her sister.

"I will. I promise." Diana then watches her sister wander off until she disappears from sight feeling a little guilty at what Donna will have to endure when she explains to their mother why Diana isn't with her. Diana understands that her mother just wants her home where she thinks Diana will be safe but the best way Diana can ensure her home's safety is to be out here trying to drive the Kryptonians off the planet.

Just then her communicator goes off. "Diana. Where are you?!" a loud voice demands to know.

"Bruce keep your voice down," Diana replies distinctly annoyed at being yelled at.

"You know it isn't safe up there."

"I needed fresh air and sunshine Bruce. Besides I'm in disguise and it isn't like it was under Luthor. We aren't being looked for or tracked down by the Kryptonian forces."

"We could be after tonight," Bruce points out to her.

"That's tonight Bruce and just in case it goes wrong I'm taking one last chance to enjoy the sunshine. You should do the same."

"I was never a daytime person," Bruce says lightly and Diana can detect a small hint of humour in his voice. Of course he is correct. Batman always does his best work in the dark. It was part of the reason they broke up really. Diana found all the darkness depressing while Bruce seemed to revel in it. They were other issues of course. Issues they never really discussed but Diana knew bothered Bruce deep down. That was the crux of their problems right there. She could never get Bruce to open up and discuss his feelings. She could never get him to let her in all the way and it wasn't like she didn't try. She may be immortal but she decided in the end that she simply wasn't prepared to wait for something that Bruce was never going to give her so their relationship ended.

And it wasn't like Lois suggested that she turned her feelings off. Diana didn't. She and Bruce simply reverted back to having a solely professional relationship. The friendship they have is still there but that is all they have now.

After a moment of silence Bruce speaks. "You'll be there at the agreed departure time?"

"Yes."

"Very well," he says realising that Diana needs a moment before they undertake tonight's mission. "Batman out," he says signing off.

With that over Diana takes her time looking around taking in the trees, the flowers, the grass, the sky, even the buildings. She takes a deep breath and enjoys the relatively fresh air knowing that if the mission goes wrong tonight this could be the last time she enjoys such things. The way Luthor and his metahuman army died was proof enough of how Kryptonians treated those who opposed them. If they get caught then Diana expects nothing less than for them all to be put to death.

Aethyr stands in the command centre of the still non-operational base. The yellow sun had vanished below the horizon by now and her cells were already missing the charge that it bestows upon them. She had been here several hours after departing the command carrier and she had quickly found out why this base was not operational. It was due to a complete lack of discipline amongst the soldiers and engineers who had decided to waste time revelling in their abilities rather than performing their duties. Aethyr had soon put a stop to that because as like Kal-El said she had a reputation of putting the fear of Rao into people. She had already demoted the entire command staff as punishment for their incompetence and when she gets a chance she'll have to talk to Kal-El about who to assign here as replacement command staff. She has a few candidates in mind and normally she would just do it herself but considering Kal-El's mood when she had left him she better play it safe and consult him first.

A soldier comes up to her, salutes and hands over a data pad. "Here is the latest update you asked for Lieutenant."

Aethyr reads over the pad. Good. She had got them back on schedule. If she works them right through the night she should have this base on-line by tomorrow. That should placate Kal-El. While she is reading a couple of engineers come in and look to be working in the communication system. Wait. Wasn't that done already?

Aethyr quickly scrawls through the data pad again. Yes that was done already. She takes a moment to actually study the two who have walked in. One of them she doesn't recognise but the other man...the other man with brown hair and brown eyes looks so familiar. Now where she has seen him before?

Then it dawns on her. She marches over quickly and lifts him off the ground. "What are you doing here?!" she demands to know of him.

The man looks at her trying to pretend ignorance but Aethyr can see he recognises her. Aethyr grabs his wrist and lifts his hand up and takes in the green ring on his finger. "I will ask again. What are you doing here Green Lantern?"

Hal seeing the jig is up summons a green bubble around himself which knocks Aethyr across the room. Aethyr gets back to her feet just as the other man's appearance shifts into a creature with green skin and a blue bodysuit. He then speaks into some form of communicator. "We've been discovered."

The next thing Aethyr knows is that explosions are going off all around the base and that she is getting seriously angered. "You will pay for this," she assures them. She shifts into accelerated speed and sends both adversaries through the entrance back outside the room. She is about to pursue them but blocking her way is a tall woman, taller than Aether with dark hair and piercing blue eyes carrying a sword. "Who are you?" Aethyr demands to know.

"I am Diana."

Earlier that night the group consisting of Diana, Batman, Green Lantern, J'onn, Flash gather a short distance from the Kryptonian base. Bruce had been studying it for a week and had seen lax procedures in place which should allow them to infiltrate the base, access whatever passes for a Kryptonian computer, therefore gaining much needed intelligence on their occupiers, and getting out without anyone noticing them. That is the plan anyway and Bruce is hopeful they can pull it off but there are always unknown even he can't account for.

"So how are we doing this exactly?" Wally asks.

"Well for starters you stay here until we call. You are our fall back should anything go wrong. You possess greater speed than they do so should we need a distraction to aid our escape we'll call you," Bruce informs Wally.

J'onn speaks next. "Hal and I shall impersonate engineers and access the data and communications systems." That was due to the fact that Hal had had experience with Kryptonians and their technology before and that J'onn had spent the last few weeks studying the Kryptonian probe that was discovered and now had a basic grasp of their technology and language.

"Diana will escort them pretending to be a soldier while I will scout around the base under the same guise," Bruce adds.

Diana looks down at herself. To aid this she is dressed in a Kryptonian uniform that Bruce had had Wally steal a few days ago. She doesn't like it. It is black and skin tight and she doesn't understand why that is. It doesn't seem to offer very much protection but since these Kryptonians seem to be invulnerable to harm maybe their uniforms are simply meant to be functional.

"So what if this goes wrong and we all die?" Wally suddenly asks which cause everyone to look at him. He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not that daft. We all know this could go wrong."

"Then Oliver will take over. That is why he isn't here. I left him instructions just in case something happens to us. He will ensure that the others are taken care," Bruce says in reply. The others being the other members of the League. Bruce had left information regarding accounts with enough money to tide them over for a long time if necessary and he trusted Oliver enough to ensure that the others would be looked after well.

So with all of them dressed up like Kryptonians they make their way onto the base. Bruce separates and goes on his separate way. Diana is slightly concerned about him. Unlike her, Hal and J'onn Bruce had no powers and normally that makes no difference. Not really. This situation, however, was totally different. They were on a military base with dozens of super powered beings. One thing she did note was that Bruce never once mentioned a thing about the sword she was carrying. She had seen enough footage of Kryptonians to know that some of them did carry bladed weapons of all sorts. Most likely captured prizes from other worlds so she didn't really stick out.

With Bruce gone Diana did her best to appear to be escorting Hal and J'onn. They reach the central command building without too much trouble and J'onn and Hal make their way inside while she waits outside. So far so good she thinks to herself. She takes a moment to appreciate that like their ships Kryptonian constructed their buildings out of crystal as well. A few minutes pass by with no sign that they have been discovered yet. Then suddenly J'onn is speaking into her communicator.

"We've been discovered," comes the message over her communicator. Diana swears colourfully under her breath in her native Greek and rushes inside to find Hal and J'onn flying out of the room she is heading towards. She can see that they will need time to recover so she rushes past them and stands in the doorway. Inside are only two. Both female. One with piercing green eyes demands to know her name which Diana gives.

The other one then flies at Diana. Diana watches as this soldier believing she possesses massively superior strength and speed comes at her hopelessly exposed. Not wanting to shed unnecessary blood unless it was absolutely the last option Diana tosses her sword into her other hand, pulls her right fist back and hits the flying woman so hard that she flies backwards the entire length of the room slamming into the crystal wall hard enough to crack it and then the soldier slithers down to the floor clearly unconscious.

Aethyr had never taken her glare off the new intruder. The strength she just showed was almost Kryptonian like but Aethyr is positive that this woman is not Kryptonian. In fact a quick scan of the intruder with her eyes down to the cellular level proves that conclusively.

Diana can hear groans as Hal and J'onn get up. Clearly they had been taken by surprise. She guesses that the explosions that were still going off are Bruce's doing. "Hal. J'onn. Did you get what we came here for?" she asks her friends.

"Not yet," J'onn answers.

"Can you do it by yourself J'onn?" Diana asks.

"I believe so."

"Good. Hal go assist Batman," Diana orders and Hal without a word of protest does just that leaving Diana standing off with this other soldier. This one Diana takes to be more experienced than the one who had attacked her. This one was studying her before making a move.

Aethyr could not let these intruders succeed. Kal-El would have her hide but the woman in front of her is obviously powerful. The green skinned one re-enters the room and the woman walks forward to protect him as he works. Aethyr watches as the creature begins accessing the data systems of the base. She cannot allow that. In a burst of accelerated speed she moves forward before the woman can raise her sword.

Diana is taken by surprise by just how fast this other woman moves and finds her sword slapped from her hand before she can raise it. A punch comes at her face but Diana manages to avoid it. With J'onn working right next to her a fight was the last thing Diana wanted right now but it seems fate was giving her no choice. She kicks her opponent in the stomach which causes her to bend over and stumble back a few paces. There is not very much space in this room. Diana needs to lure her opponent outside and leave J'onn to his work.

Aethyr gasps at having the air knocked out of her. Rao! She hadn't fought an opponent that was this strong in quite some time. Out of the corner of her eye she catches a green glow penetrating through the crystal walls that could only be the Green Lantern and worse she knew this Green Lantern. She had no doubt he was causing chaos amongst a base of relatively inexperienced and ill-disciplined technicians and soldiers. She just knew she should have persuaded Kal-El to give Nam-Ek this task.

Diana eyes the cracked crystal wall behind her opponent and without much more thought rushes forward and drives into Aethyr's midsection. They both fly back and crash right through the damaged wall to the outside. J'onn takes a moment to note it and the unconscious soldier on the floor. Hopefully she would stay that way until he was done.

Meanwhile Aethyr finds her adversary has landed on top of her. With an effort she positions her feet under this 'Diana' and pushes her off. Diana stops in mid air and looks down at Aethyr. This one can fly too! Aethyr has an ominous feeling tonight was going to a long and difficult affair as she launches herself upward.

Diana trades blows in mid-air with her opponent. Each blow would be bone shattering if inflicted upon a normal human being but as these Kryptonians seemed invulnerable Diana reckoned holding back of any sort would be foolish and by the sound her opponent makes when she does manage to land a blow it seems to Diana that she is inflicting actual pain upon her opponent.

Aethyr is knocked back and is getting more annoyed by the second. Her opponent is as fast and as strong as she it seemed but Aethyr has many other abilities to call on. Her eyes glow as the only warning as she unleashed two beams of intense heat at Diana.

Diana sees it coming barely and raises her arms just as the two glowing beams burn through the outer layer of her uniform until they hit her bracelets underneath at which point they bounce off harmlessly into space.

Aethyr looks on dumbfounded. A momentary hesitation that costs her as a forearm smashes into her face knocking her from the sky. She lands with an unceremonious thump and the taste of blood in her mouth.

Diana floats down after her opponent to find her on the ground on all fours spitting up blood. She actually hurt one. These Kryptonians can actually be hurt Diana learns in this moment. Her opponent takes what appears to be a very deep breath then she turns her head at Diana and an enormous wind rises from her opponent's lips and blows Diana from the sky. Her flying relied on air currents which had now been disrupted. Despite this Diana manages to land on her feet in a crouched position. She quickly looks up as her opponent dissolves into a black blur moving right at her. This time Diana can't move to block it. She gets hit sending her flying across the base and she crashes into a partially built building, possibly a barracks, which promptly collapses on top of her.

When Diana hears the structure above her being lifted away she expects it is her green eyed opponent. Well she is partially right in some way. The colour green is involved but she finds it is J'onn. He helps her to her feet.

"Are you ok?" he asks.

Diana shakes her head slightly to clear the cobwebs. While she is certain she will be feeling the effects of this fight in the morning for right at this moment her adrenaline is making the pain almost unnoticeable. "I am fine but what are you doing here?"

"You needed assistance," J'onn explains simply.

"Did you finish?" Diana queries. She would hate to go through all this for nothing.

J'onn shakes his head. "No but Batman is taking care of it." Bruce had appeared while J'onn was working and insisted that he go aid Diana. Seeing that no-one but an unconscious soldier was there J'onn reasoned it would be safe to leave Bruce so he did.

Diana looks around. Her opponent is gone. "Where did she go?"

J'onn's eyes glow as a sign he is using his telepathy. "She is with Batman. His life is in danger."

Diana is about to fly off when she and J'onn find themselves surrounded by several soldiers.

"Go help Batman. I'll take care of this," J'onn informs her before he morphs in a dragon like creature with a long elongated body and engages the soldiers in combat.

Diana moves quickly and glances Hal fighting up in the sky. She hopes he will be ok but for right now she has to help Bruce. She also glances a red streak being pursued by several more soldiers. Flash had taken the explosions as a sign that things were going wrong and was now providing a most useful distraction as it seemed that he was indeed faster than the Kryptonians soldiers pursuing him. She flies up to the command centre and to her surprise finds Bruce unharmed. The same could not be said of the opponent Diana had been fighting. She is lying on the floor with a pool of blood forming and sticking straight through her heart is Diana's sword. Diana looks up into Bruce's eyes and words are not needed for what had happened. The woman had returned here, cornered him and he had reached for the only weapon there, Diana's sword.

Diana can hear the groans as the other soldier she had knocked out earlier begins to come round. She grabs Bruce by his arm. "Bruce. We have to go!"

He looks at her in a daze barely able to grasp what he had done. He had broken his one vow that he would never kill.

Seeing Bruce is in obvious shock Diana hoists him over her shoulder. She glances at the device they plugged into the communication system. It says 'Download Complete'. They had accomplished their goal. She grabs it and then yells over her communicator to Hal, Wally and J'onn that it is time to go. She grabs her sword and pulls it out of the dead woman whose lifeless green eyes are staring upward with a look of what appears to be shock. If Diana had more time to think on it she would realise that this is the look of someone who thinks they are invulnerable only to find that, at the last moment of their life, they are not.

Diana quickly moves past the slowly awakening soldier, with Bruce still slung over her shoulder, before she flies off into the night sky leaving behind fire and chaos and a single death which will have far reaching consequences beyond what she can imagine.

Author's Note: Right I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I strongly implied that it was Diana that killed Aethyr at the end of the last chapter and I'll admit that was my original intention but as I was writing it I came up with this, what I think, is a much better idea and will fit in better with what I have planned yet to come.