Chapter 10

Wonder Woman was zooming through the skies, following the trail of melting ice through the city.

"Wonder Woman, come in, this is Jo'on."

She gave no response, knowing the man was going to try and stop her.

"Wonder Woman, come in."

She pressed harder, looking ahead to see a woman of green fire lighting up the skies and throwing fireballs.

"Diana!"

"Sorry Jo'on."

She took out her earpiece and crushed it, letting it fall to the Earth. She pressed forward, rage in her heart. All she had to do was look at her hands, arms, body, to remember why she was so pissed.

"Not even Zeus could stop me now little girl."

Dinah was pacing outside, waiting for Superman to arrive. He, the Flash and Batman were able to stop their little group. The police were also transporting an unconscious and frozen Volcana to Arkham, along with Luthor. Grodd, as to be expected, threw Luthor under the bus and tossed him to escape. Flash had run to help Vixen and John.

Superman finally arrived at the ED, reporters outside and scurrying around. When he entered, Dinah and Ice were waiting.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad," Dinah said with sad eyes.

"They said she had a penetrating injury. When we saw Diana here, she was…" Dinah paused.

"She was what?"

"She was completely covered in blood."

Clark's eyes widened, seeing the women's faces.

"Where is she now?"

"She looked more terrifying than I've ever seen her. She went after Killer Frost, and I'm guessing she wants to change her name to Killed Frost, Superman."

Clark's eyes went wide, and he turned to leave when Ice stopped him.

"Sir, Killer Frost has that chunk of kryptonite. I-I don't think you should go."

Superman paused, realizing the young girl was right. He nodded and went to his comm link.

"Bruce. You need to head our way…"

Back on the Watch Tower…

Jo'on was pacing as Booster Gold stood watch, making sure he had his back. There were about five different League members left who were not on missions or busy elsewhere. What the group below did not realize was Jo'on had telepathically called out to Dr. Fate for assistance.

They communicated silently, Dr. Fate teleported in secret to the original League member's meeting room so he could perform his incantation. Jo'on scanned the group, trying to figure out which among them was not who they seemed.

"Tell me again why y'all don't need me below green guy?"

Jo'on remained silent, until he saw Aztec fall over. The man began screaming, falling to his knees and clutching his head.

"What in the hell?" Booster began, Jo'on smirking.

"There's the leak," he said, gesturing for Booster to follow.

Just as they reached the next floor down, everyone noticed Aztec's body moving and shifting, changing and morphing.

"What's going on?"

"He's not who he claims to be!" Jo'on shouted to the group.

Slowly but surely, the man claiming to be Aztec began growing, the colors fading off him, growing at an epic rate until none other than a giant Clayface loomed over the group of heroes.

"Clayface!" Jo'on yelled, the large creature grinning as he began swinging wildly.

"Everyone, we must capture him and take him down!"

Clayface began his rampage around the Watch Tower, Dr. Fate zooming in to help.

"Oh dear."

Wonder Woman finally gained on Fire and Killer Frost, seeing the pair weaving in and out of the sky above the city. Wonder Woman dove low to keep out of sight, getting ready to launch at Killer Frost from behind. She flew fast, leaping up when she had to dodge a fireball thrown her way.

"Dammit," she thought, realizing Fire was going to cause a lot of destruction with her powers and she couldn't communicate with her.

Wonder Woman zoomed up and began following Frost, garnering Fire's attention. Wonder Woman went down below the path of ice, finally getting right beneath the woman. She waited for an opening when the girl was distracted by another fireball, punching upwards and smashing the ice, Killer Frost stumbling and beginning to fall.

Wonder Woman used her lasso to catch her, swinging her around and throwing her towards the park a few blocks away. Fire flew over to her, the kryptonite in hand.

"Get that back to the Tower immediately," she ordered."

"But wait-"

It was too late. Wonder Woman had already flown off to where she needed to be.

"Fire, this is Batman, come in."

"I'm here."

"Have you seen Wonder Woman?"

"She just sent Killer Frost flying towards the park and went after her. I have the kryptonite."

"We're having trouble contacting the Tower. Get that to our Earth base, I'll send Ice and Black Canary to meet you."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Now go."

Batman signed off as he zoomed through the streets of Gotham, tapping his comm link to reach Dinah.

"Black Canary?"

"Go ahead."

"I need you and Ice to get to the Earth station and guard the kryptonite. Flash, Lantern and Vixen are still out there and I don't know if more will be coming."

"I need to stay with Helena-"

"Superman can stay. Now go!"

He signed off as he sped, making his way into the park and hoping he could find his friend before it was too late.

Wonder Woman was breaking down trees left and right searching for the small blue girl. She threw another tree out of the way, finally finding her abandoned lasso.

"I know you're here Killer Frost. It might do you well to come out now and not later."

Diana kept her senses sharp, knowing the sly little fox could be anywhere.

"Tell me Wonder Woman, did your girlfriend even make it to the hospital? Or was her last breath in your arms?"

Diana growled and launched, punching through several trees, still not finding the source.

"Come out you coward!"

"You know it's funny. We've had someone undercover for nearly a month, and lookie what we found! Wonder Woman now has her own form of kryptonite."

Diana growled, grabbing a tree she used to swing, breaking more and more down, destroying anything in her path."

"My my. You and Hawkgirl, such tempers. A match made in heaven… I guess literally now!"

Diana ripped the tree in half, panting in rage. She kept breathing, listening to the girl taunt her. Diana was short-tempered, but when it came to being a warrior, she was not a fool. She closed her eyes and listened.

"That's quite a bit of blood. I wonder how much someone needs to survive?"

"We'll use you as an experiment."

"Is that a fact? You couldn't save your girlfriend in time, what makes you think you'll catch me in time?"

Diana grabbed a large tree, flying into the forest and smashing everything in its path. Killer Frost saw her go speeding off in the wrong direction, and quickly stumbled off the opposite way.

"Dumb Amazon," she said as she grunted in pain.

She looked back to see no one was coming. She finally ran out of the trees and saw a gate to the park, running towards it. She looked back once more and kept running only to turn and see a lasso flying at her.

Wonder Woman had tricked her, flying around the park and getting her out, using her lasso to capture the woman. Diana grabbed and yanked, pulling her zooming towards her, Frost looking wide eyed in fear. Diana reeled back and turned, kicking her square in the chest, sending her flying back and into a bench, Killer Frost lying in the mess broken and bloody.

Diana wound her lasso up, walking towards her. Killer Frost looked up.

"You… you can't kill me Amazon. It's not in your code," she said smugly.

Diana grabbed her by the throat, clenching it just enough for breathing to become difficult.

"Accidents happen. And it's just you and me right now. No League. No civilians. No comm link for people to hear me. It's just you and me, and I should let you know, Amazons punish traitors by both exile or death."

Killer Frost was gasping for air. She used a hand to try and pry the Amazon's tight grip, but to no avail. She then tried her free hand, trying to conjure some ice with her last bit of strength, but the Amazon grabbed it and squeezed, effectively crushing the bones in her forearm and wrist.

"P-please," the tiny woman gasped out, Diana's rage only increasing.

"It's times like this when I wonder why we bother letting scum like you live at all. You make the souls of Tartarus seem like angels."

At the mention of angels, she thought to Shayera, squeezing harder, the blue woman now really getting blue as she could not breathe.

"Why is it we should let people like you live while we watch people like her die?" she asked in rage.

"Tell me why that is!"

"Diana! Stop."

Batman could be seen running towards them, the Batmobile having just been parked near the entrance. He reached the pair, approaching slowly.

"This doesn't concern you."

"No, but you concern me."

Diana looked back at him in anger.

"You know what she did. Don't you dare try to tell me this is unwarranted!"

"I won't. I won't tell you what to do here," he began, coming to stand a foot away.

"But I will tell you this. What would Shayera do?"

"She would do the same!"

"And if she did, what would you tell her?"

Diana paused, her grip loosening just slightly, Killer Frost breathing better but still barely.

"You would tell her to not go there. You would tell her to not let her soul get tarnished by this world, to not let it make her a killer."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm doing the killing."

"Then tell me Diana, what would she say if she were right here? What did she do when you nearly knocked out Oliver?"

Diana's face dropped, thinking back to her confrontation, thinking of her rage towards Arrow. Shayera had tried to hold her back, tried to stop her. She remembered their talk after, the shame she felt for snapping. She remembered Shayera telling her how these things happened.

"Diana… what would Shayera want you to do?"

The Amazon pulled herself out of memory lane. She stared at Bruce, tears flowing from her eyes, clenching her jaw. He understood her rage, understood her pain, and he knew he never wanted her of all people to become someone like him, someone dark, angry, and bitter.

He reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll take her in. Let me take care of the rest of this for you."

Diana clenched again, closing her eyes and finishing her tears. She let go of the woman's wrist, holding her up higher in the air and making eye contact with her.

"If there's a next time, Batman won't be there to save you. You'd do well to remember that."

She let go and the woman fell to the ground, holding her throat and wrist, gasping for air. Diana looked down at her, Bruce's hand still on her shoulder.

"Go. Go to her."

Diana looked at him, made eye contact, trying to communicate without speaking. She closed her eyes and nodded, patting his hand before slowly rising in the sky and flying towards the hospital.

"Jo'on! We need to separate and seal this monster into different containers. I can place a spell on each one to prevent them from opening!" Dr. Fate shouted, as Clayface fought several members of the League.

Jo'on nodded and reported the plan to the rest of the members through their comm links, telling pairs of them to attack different parts of his body and getting them into the large used oilcans they had from the Tower.

"This is gonna get messy!" Booster shouted as spark flew and people went flying.

Jo'on and Fate just looked at each other, shaking their heads before getting to work.

Diana flew towards the ED but spotted the mass of reporters below. Instead of heading towards them, she flew to the roof, deciding to take an entrance that way. She found Superman, Lantern, Vixen and Flash all there talking.

"Flash, I believe Batman is going to need your help escorting people to Arkham and making sure there's no interference," Superman said, everyone watching as Diana touched down.

She looked completely worn. When John had found out what happened, he immediately wanted to find the Amazon and scream at her, blaming her for letting this happen. As he saw the amount of blood covering her, he realized she probably had done all she could.

"Diana, where is Killer Frost?" Clark asked expectantly.

The group all stared at her worriedly, Clark the only one looking stern.

"With Batman. Arkham's receiving several members tonight," she said.

Vixen clutched her arm, John shaking his head and glancing at her.

"You need to get that checked out Mari," he said.

"Agreed. This is how it's going to go. Diana? Stay with Mari as she gets fixed up. Helena should be done treatment soon, and the three of you can wait for word on Shayera. John? I need you to head to Earth base to help secure the kryptonite. Flash, head to meet Batman now."

"What about you?" Wally asked.

"There's been no contact with the Watch Tower, so I'm heading up there. I think the assumption of a leak being among us became a reality. I need to check it out."

Flash nodded and zoomed off, John going green and flying off. Clark was about to fly away when he saw his friend. He walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug.

"I know what this feels like. I know how hard this is. I'm proud of you."

She looked up at him and nodded, Clark nodding back and taking a step back before shooting up into the sky to check out the Tower. Diana was still spacing out until she felt Mari gently touch her arm.

"Come on girl. My arm needs fixing as much as your wardrobe right now."

Diana looked up and saw the kind smile, tears falling from her eyes as a brief laugh of irony escaped her. Vixen through an arm over her shoulders and Diana helped her down and into the hospital.

"Superman to Watch Tower? Can anyone hear me?"

As Superman sped through the atmosphere to get to the Tower, he used his x-ray vision to see none other than Clayface making a mess. He went to one of the entrance bays, pulling a door back to gain entrance. Air came rushing in, and once inside, he quickly shut it and made a beeline for the group.

He entered the bay to see containers and Dr. Fate meditating, Jo'on fighting off mini-Clay Face men. Once Jo'on saw Superman, he telepathically communicated the plan, and Clark set to work with his laser vision, cutting pieces in half and stuffing them into containers.

"Superman, hold them off! I have an idea."

Jo'on disappeared through the walls, flying quickly to their locked vault where they kept highly valuable materials. Since Jo'on couldn't phase through the secured area, he entered his info quickly, punching in and flying to his destination. Once he found what he was looking for, he flew out of there and back to the battle as fast as he could.

The League was doing better with Superman there, but still, there was took much Clayface to take on. Jo'on arrived and stood at the balcony, point the freeze gun and aiming it Clayface's arms.

The group watched as parts of the monster man were getting frozen, breaking the pieces off and sending them into barrels. Clayface became more volatile, fighting violently. It was not matter though. This was a fight the group was going to win.

"Yes, okay, I will not touch, got it!"

Helena squirmed and complained to the nurse as her bandages were freshly wrapped and left to settle. She gave her a pointed look, Vixen shaking her head.

"Don't worry, her girlfriend will make sure she doesn't do anything stupid," Vixen said, the nurse smirking and nodding, leaving the women be.

Vixen had just finished getting her arm x-rayed, relieved to find it was only a small sprain. She went back to find Helena looking ridiculous, her mask still on but the rest of her body in bandages and a hospital gown.

"I really wish Dinah or a camera were here. Really, either would do."

"Where did she go anyways? It's not like her to not wait and worry."

"They needed her and Ice to go and guard the kryptonite with John. This was a huge attack on multiple levels. They were going after everything from heavy machinery, to biotech, to computer software to damn kryptonite. They were all over the city."

"I know Bats said to me something was off when we ran into each other patrolling the other night. It wasn't like Gotham to be this quiet, it was as if the criminals were even scared. Now we know why, it's a good thing he kept a sharp eye."

"Indeed."

Vixen and Helena fell into silence, the pair thinking about everything they had just gone through.

"Where's Diana?"

"Taking a shower… a nurse brought her a change of clothes."

"Diana doesn't even sweat, why bother?"

Vixen made eye contact, realizing Helena must not have caught everything when she was rolled in.

"The blood."

Helena's brow furrowed, staring at Vixen who was far too serious for her liking.

"I don't know what I missed, but if it involves my friends, I need to know now."

"Promise me you will wait in this bed and behave until she gets back, because I can't have you running around. None of us can."

Helena kept a level gaze.

"Deal."

Vixen sighed.

"When Shayera and Diana were fighting Giganta and Star Sapphire, they got blindsided by Killer Frost. That bitch is known for being cold-blooded, hence the name, but…"

Helena felt a pit in her stomach forming.

"She sent ice spikes flying. One went right through Shayera. Diana got there in time to stop the rest, but… there was a lot of damage."

Helena stood up, limping to Vixen who leaned against the door. She had tears in her eyes and she got in the woman's face.

"Don't you dare tell me-"

"We don't know. She's in surgery. We… Diana flew her straight here… there was a lot of blood Helena…"

Helena turned quickly, her hand going to her face as the tears came pouring out. A lot of blood was never a good sign… never good.

Vixen watched her in sympathy, feeling sad herself. Even though she and Shayera weren't best friends, they respected one another, they had grown to get along… this was the last thing she wanted.

"Dammit!" Helena yelled, slamming the metal tray of nursing supplies and bending it, sending it all smashing to the ground.

Vixen watched her closely.

"I can't tell you if she's going to pull through or not… it was bad Helena, so I won't patronize you by telling you it will all be good. I will say this though… Diana will need you if this goes south."

Helena slowed her breathing, wiping the tears away, listening to her. She couldn't handle this, no. Shayera had just found happiness, peace, family, and love again… this could not be happening. She turned to Vixen.

"She just found it all again Mari. She just found it."

Vixen's face showed concern, walking over the younger girl, pulling her in for a hug.

"I know baby girl…. I know."

The hot and steaming water could only do so much. Even with soap, only so much could be done as Diana rinsed herself. What really got rid of blood was the scrubbing, the friction. It stained easily, your clothes, your floors, even your skin. It didn't matter. Blood was always difficult to remove. Diana always remembered that lesson the hard way.

As she finished scrubbing every inch of her body, using a wash clothe to wipe down her hair, she then set to work on trying to get it out of her clothes, the prided Amazon uniform. She hoped with some pre-washing, it might help to take it all out. And so, she scrubbed.

She also scrubbed because the reality of the world lay in wait right outside of this room. The reality was sitting there, gnawing at her, taunting her. She wanted to know if Shayera was okay, but she did not want to know if she wasn't okay. And so, she kept scrubbing, kept avoiding, kept staying busy. Like Schrodinger's cat…. Nothing had yet transpired either way… Shayera was here and not here at the same time.

Time passed and eventually most of the blood was gone, even from the surfaces of the hospital's shower. She knew she had to leave, had to check on the others just in case. So she exited the shower and put on the dark blue scrubs that were leant to her and the small disposable booties as well. She used a disposable comb to rake through her hair, thick and fine as ever. She didn't want to leave, but knew there was no option. The future would unfold whether she stayed frozen or not, and so… she walked out the door.

There was a locker room she walked through, some night staff dwellers surprised to see her. She quickly exited and went to find Helena and Vixen, hoping they had finished treatment by now.

She walked slowly down the hallways, finding her way back. She saw the nurse's stand that was familiar to her and knew where to turn, giving a nod to the kind nurse who was now busy on the phone.

She made it to the final hallway, going to the door where her friends sat behind when she heard the tail end of their conversation, heard Helena break down in tears. And she was right… Shayera had just found her, and visa versa.

She sighed and went to the door, knocking gently. Vixen opened the door with a weary face, Helena looking at Diana with glossy eyes. Instead of speaking, the brunette went to hug Wonder Woman, Diana giving a one armed hug in response. Everyone was used to Wonder Woman being polite and quiet… but this? This was different.

Diana and Helena pulled away, everyone ready to go.

"We should go to the waiting room," Diana said dejectedly, not able to speak.

The pair nodded and followed her out, meeting the kind nurse along the way who happily escorted them to where they needed to be. For now, it was all a waiting game.

Sorry for all the blood… I work in EMS… only two chaps left, all to be posted by the weekend.