Once more the Lady Isis was nice enough to BETA this for me, so much appreciation goes to her, and I'd like to thank everyone who was nice enough to leave a review. Here is chapter 8...

After spending a few hours looking for weaknesses in the security around him (and finding nothing), Bruce spends the rest of his time working out while trying to ignore his audience, until finally sitting down on the cold floor and meditating. His guards never leave without a replacement coming in and never take their eyes off of him. In fact, they seem rather curious about his nude form; one dark amazon in particular licks her lips often while watching him.

Eventually the dark priestess of the Xechasmenos arrives outside his cell. "Hello, Batman. It is an honor to be in your..." she pauses for a moment and looks over his battle scarred body, "...presence. I've never before met someone who has murdered a god. You have my respect."

"I believe you might be mistaken, I don't recall ever killing a god," he tells her.

"I am not mistaken, you killed Lord Darkseid, ruler of Apokalips and god of anti-life," Tal Rashiarna calmly answers.

Batman snorts, "An arrogant tyrant who was often defeated by a Kryptonian counts as a 'god' to you?"

"He counts enough to make you the linchpin of my ceremony tonight," Tal answers.

Batman stands and looks the evil cleric in the eye and tells her, "I won't come quietly."

"I have enough warriors, creatures, and magic to get even someone as formidable as you where I need you to be, but if you are nice enough to do as you're told without resistance then I promise not to bring down my newfound power on your beloved Gotham," the dark Amazon replies.

"Your promises mean nothing to me," Batman tells her, stepping into a fighting stance.

"As you wish," Tal answers gesturing for her guards to step in and take him.

The first guard into the cell makes a grab for the hero, unfortunately for her the prisoner not only dodges her lunge but is able to pull the sword from her belt. Before she can even get out of the way so her sisters can get through the door Batman slashes her above her eyes, blinding the dark Amazon with her own blood. Then he kicks her left knee, knocking her leg out from under her and pitching her forward. Finally he brings the pommel of the sword down on the back of her skull as he raises his right knee into her chin, violently knocking her out.

With the first of his guards on the ground at his feet Batman points the sword at the two others and glares at them, silently daring the evil warriors to try and get him. The two remaining guards draw their swords and step into the cell, their leader telling them, "Remember, we need him alive," as they do.

The one on the left makes a high cut to the left while her sister on the right goes for a low lunge. Batman ducks and side steps the blows easily then imbeds his sword into the Xechasmenos on the left's thigh. Then, as she reaches for the blade in her leg and her partner turns towards the hero, Batman grabs the wounded woman and hurls her off the ground and into the other guard.

Before Batman has a chance to do anything else Tal Rashiarna pounces, wrapping her arm around his throat in a sleeper hold. Struggle as he might, Tal has the strength of a true Amazon and Batman can not break out of her hold.

"You would have fathered great daughters for me," the priestess tells him. "Instead you will give us the strength to make this world ours." Then she gently bites his ear and whispers to him as his vision begins to fade, "Because of that I will never forget you."

Wonder Woman was left in the room with the Honored Sisters for hours, with nothing but the sounds of the creatures' inhuman screeching, the loud clanking of their chains to hear and nothing but their deformed faces and hungry eyes to look at. That whole time she was slowly working her way out of her bonds. While the pole she is tightly tied to is made out of too strong of a material for her to smash open with a couple of backward slams with her head (something she has painfully discovered) she's been wearing it down another way. For hours she's been pushing herself forward against the impenetrable cord that binds her, and with all her might she's been moving her whole body to the left then the right as much as she possibly can, grinding the Lasso against the pole and slowly cutting into it. The result of which is that she is now finally getting some slack.

Now, with her back rubbed raw and the marks of the Lasso's coils imprinted on her arms and chest she painfully forces her binding down her body and off of her. Her hours of painful work pay off as she finally slips free of her bonds and painfully stretches. She then retrieves her magical Lasso from the pole and turns to her next obstacle ... namely the half a dozen demonic Amazon monsters chomping at the bit, just to get a piece of her.

Wonder Woman thinks on the situation then turns and sees the pole she was tied to sticking up out of the ground. She walks up to the large stone cylinder, gets a good grip on it, and then pulls up hard on it, ripping the whole thing (including the four feet extending into the floor) out. Then holding it like a massive club she turns towards the monsters and says, "I'm getting to that door. You are going to try and stop me. So if there is anything left of the women you used to be inside you...I am sorry." She then lets out a battle war cry and charges forward.

Outside the giant steel door two Xechasmenos stand on guard duty, the third having already been sent to get reinforcements, are trying to unlock and open the door. Before the dark Amazons can get inside there is a loud bang as something very strong strikes the door. The dark Amazons step back and bare their weapons a second before the giant steel door is kicked down by the bloody and angry Wonder Woman, who is still holding the shattered remains of the pole in her hands.

Her blue eyes, full of rage, look out through the hair in her face at them and she says, "You are in my way."

The two Xechasmenos charge the Amazon Princess with swords bared, only for the first one to get the chunk of stone pole in the face and the other to receive stiff kick to the gut. While the guard who took the blow to the face goes down for the count her partner recovers and swings her sword at the heroine's face. Wonder Woman blocks the blade with her bracelet and counters with a right hook to her enemy's jaw. The Xechasmenos recovers enough from the blow to lunge forward with her sword aimed at the Princess's belly. Wonder Woman dodges the strike, grabs the evil woman by the hair, pulls her head back, then slams her face first into the wall hard enough to crack the stone. As the guard slumps to the ground Wonder Woman picks her sword up, and her partner's sword, and then goes to rescue Batman.

After she knocked him out Tal drugged Batman with something strong enough to keep him out for the duration of the ritual. His unconscious body is dressed in a black silk outfit that bears a resemblance to the Dark Knight's own uniform including a cape and cowl. Then four Xechasmenos in dark purple ceremonial robes carry Batman's unconscious form into a large room and lay him on a raised stone slab.

Hanging by a chain from the ceiling over the slab is a glass orb the size of a basketball, inside of which is an amorphous and shifting black plasma. In front of the slab is a half dozen steps that lead to a raised platform, on the steps kneel twenty Xechasmenos all with blood marking their skin in strange symbols and all are chanting that alien language. On the raised platform is a stone alter with dried human blood and several other disturbing vestments on it, behind that stands Tal Rashiarna dressed in a black robe, and behind her stands two dozen dark Amazons in full battle regalia. As her sisters chant the dark priestess takes her life stealing blade and uses it to cut open her hand, then she slowly drips her blood on the alter and starts a different alien chant than the sisters on the steps. As the air is filled with smell of blood and demonic language the glass orb begins to shed darkness on to Batman's slumbering body.

Bruce finds himself standing in a hot void, like the salt flats on a bright and clear day. Out of the blurry haze steps his Princess, dressed in a long flowing white gown. As she walks closer to him Bruce asks, "Diana? Where are we? How did we get here? What happened to the Xechasmenos?"

Diana smiles at him. "You don't have to worry about any of that anymore. Just take my hand and follow me, and I'll take you somewhere far from all of your troubles," she tells him.

Back in the real world, Wonder Woman finally makes it to the party. Part of the wall on the right side of the room explodes outward to reveal her enraged form. In the hallway behind her there are the littered bodies of the fallen Xechasmenos, who were foolish or unlucky enough to get in her way. She quickly looks over the room and sees Batman lying prone under the spell of the dark ritual.

"Bruce," she says a second before she starts charging forward.

The four who carried Batman to his fate drop their robes, exposing themselves dressed in black armor, and halt the warrior princess. While even four on one, the dark Amazons are no match for Diana they are soon joined by the two dozen who were waiting behind Tal Rashiarna and the weight of numbers soon pushes Diana back. Through all of this the dark priestess and her kneeling choir never break their chant.

Back in the void, Bruce narrows his eyes at the woman in front of him. "Who are you?" he asks her.

"I am your salvation. Come with me and I will free you of all your problems and breathe life into all of your desires," she seductively answers.

"No, I'm needed elsewhere," he tells her.

The void around them darkens a bit and the false Diana asks, "Don't you feel tired?" After she asks that a wave of exhaustion passes through Bruce and he almost falls to his knees. "Don't you deserve some rest?"

The hero forces himself to stand up straight look the "woman" in the eye. "I will not lose to you. I'll deal with Tal. I'll stop you!" he tells her.

The world around them continues to darken as the imitation Diana's smile flatters and she looks sadly at him. "But you are only human," she says. The void finally shifts to pitch black and loud alien voices from the darkness add their voice to the false woman's before him. "You are weak, powerless. If you stand against us you will only be destroyed. Your only choice is to submit. Now take our hand and let go," the whole world around him commands.

"I don't know what the hell you are, but I will never submit to you!" Bruce shouts into the void. "I will stand between you and the people of my world until the end of the Earth if I have to and I will never give up!"

"You can barely stand," the creatures surrounding him calmly state. "You are mortal, you can not hope to resist our power. You are nothing."

The man from Gotham stands in the middle of a malevolent alien shadow, with a demonic power far beyond his understanding closing in on all sides. Any sane man in his position should rightly quake with fear. This man however laughs. He laughs hard and loudly at the unimaginable evil around him. "Nothing?" he asks the darkness quietly. "You think I'm nothing?" He laughs again at the eldritch horror that has all but consumed him. "I am vengeance," he tells it. "I am the night!" He looks up into the black void and shouts, "I AM! BATMAN!"

Back in the ceremonial chamber Tal Rashiarna and her followers continue their horrible ritual, never pausing, as the sounds of battle fill the air. The number of Dark Amazon warriors has significantly thinned out in the last few minutes but the painful struggles of the day are finally catching up on Wonder Woman as she battles for her (and Batman's) life.

Normally in her role as a superhero Wonder Woman fights to defeat her foes and take them in alive. However with the stakes as they are, and the nature of her enemy, Diana has thrown such caution to the wind and now is fighting with her all, striking killing blows where her attackers leave openings and not batting an eye at their dying cries of the Xechasmenos or the blood flying through the air with each swipe of her blades.

Now as the ceremony is winding down only five Xechasmenos warriors stand against the Champion of Themyscira. As they all attack Diana she ducks and weaves around all the blades, turns one of her swords around in her hand so that its blade is pointing backwards, then stabs backwards into one of her attackers' chest with such strength that it pierces straight through her armor, her breast plate, and her flesh to stab her heart. Her eyes go dead and Wonder Woman pulls the blade free to block an overhead slash. She then raises her other sword to block a thrust from her right, while turning her head to the side to avoid a third attacker's sword thrust to her face before kicking that Dark Amazon in the gut. While she is busy with them however her last opponent delivers a two handed slash across Diana's back, cutting her from shoulder to hip.

Wonder Woman howls in pain and battle furry before shoving the attackers at her sides away with superhuman strength, floating up and delivering a two legged backwards mule kick at the woman "lucky" enough to land a blow on her, a kick which flings the Dark Amazon backwards through the air and head first into the wall.

The Xechasmenos the superhero kicked in the gut attacks again only for her sword to be blocked and to get headbutted with enough force to knock her on her ass. The two attackers on the side charge forward in unison and Wonder Woman parries their swords, grabs them both, and slams them together. While they're dazed, Diana takes a step back and swings with both her swords, beheading the evil women. Her final opponent leaps over the her two dead sisters and tries to deliver a downward thrust to the Themysciran's face. Diana dodges to the left and continues the movement into a left handed slash across the woman's back and follows it up by bringing her second sword down in a thrust, impaling the woman from back to out the chest and killing her.

Before Diana can rush over her fallen enemies to save him, Bruce's body lurches up and roars in rage. Tal and her chanters all stop at once and look up in shock, surprised by the angry howl coming from their victim. The dark glow from the glass ball abruptly stops and the whole Orb cracks. Tal Rashiarna looks up at it in shock and fear, knowing what will now come next.

TBC. Reviews are welcome and appreciated. Happy Holidays!