Disclaimer: Here's where I say I wish I owned the JLA characters, especially Batman, but if wishes were horses, I'd have a ranch and go riding every day.

First Love by chrryfiona

Chapter 11: Choices

"Where's Hades?" Shayera asked Superman.

"He said he wanted to stay back and watch Diana."

"Are you nuts? How can you trust him so easily? We don't even know why he's here in the first place!" The Thanagarian woman shook her head in disgust and stalked back to the Infirmary.

Superman glanced at Huntress with pleading eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll babysit the two of them." She responded before running after Hawkgirl.

Superman sighed. He pinched the area between his brows in frustration. There were some days where he'd rather be off fighting the bad guys than deal with certain members of the Justice League.

"Damn you, Bruce. Where are you when I need you?" Clark muttered.

"Looking for me?" Batman had let the medical team take Rachel and Malka and was about to go with them to the Infirmary when he heard that the Atom was looking for him. Suppressing his desire to check up on Diana, the Dark Knight headed down toward the lab when he came across Superman. Without a pause in his stride, he continued past his friend.

"There you are! What hap…"

"Later."

"Batman, hey! Wait up! You know I hate it when you act all enigmatic."


Hades untangled the slender arms wrapped around his neck. He turned around and stared clinically at the beautiful blond woman in front of him. Even if she had not spoken, he would have known who she was. Persephone. As the former goddess of spring, she always carried the special fragrance of flowers freshly bloomed. No perfume in the world could capture that particular scent and her time in the Underworld had not dimmed that aspect of her power. Once upon a time, he had loved her, loved her as he had loved no other before or since. His desire to have her by his side had been so urgent and great that he had sacrificed his ambitions and promised Zeus the unthinkable. Hades was younger but the wily king of the gods knew better than to underestimate his little brother. The god of the Underworld had never shown any weaknesses before but his love for Persephone proved to be the proverbial chink in his armor. Zeus had gleefully taken full advantage of that leverage. If Hades hadn't kept his wits about him and tricked Persephone into eating those six pomegranate seeds, he wouldn't have even been able to keep her those six months out of the year – sacrifice or no sacrifice.

Be careful what you wish for. The god grimaced in self-disgust because the most appalling truth was that, despite the bitterness of disappointment accumulated through the years they've been together, Hades still could not look at Persephone without remembering how he felt about her when they first met. Eros' arrow hit too deep and true. He sighed. His queen. His wife. His love. The bitch.

"Don't give me that look, husband. You've always wanted me to be the little devoted wife and now that I'm doing just that, you run away."

"Spying on me is hardly an act of devotion, wife."

"I just want to make sure you don't do anything sentimental like cure your daughter only to forfeit our bet."

Hades snorted. "And you care because? We both know you would do anything to win."

Persephone trailed a sharp fingernail down Hades' cheek. She tilted her head to kiss him only to have him pull away at the last second. Her eyes narrowed at the rejection.

"You think you know me so well? Well, then you should know that as much as I want to win, I also want to show you there is nothing special about yourdaughter. Stripped of her powers, she is no better than any other mortal."

"By underestimating her, you are underestimating me. Do you think anything I created can be so flawed? Her will is strong. She is not afraid of …"

Persephone laughed mockingly. "Ah, but she is. You felt it when you touched her. Her will may have been strong before but that was because she has never been introduced to loneliness, to doubt. She is beloved by the gods. Hera gives her strength when she asks for it in battle. She grew up worshiped and respected by her Amazon sisters. Even when Hippolyta banished her from Themiscyra, she still had a home and friends among the Justice League. A smith always tests his newly crafted sword against the anvil to make sure it stands true before making any claims about its strength. How can you say your clay doll is strong when the creature has never been tested? I knew you were prideful, my husband, but I never pegged you for blind or foolish. And yet, when it comes to this toy of yours, you are both."

"And I never pegged you as one to possess motherly inclinations. You've never wanted a child in all the centuries we've been together. Why now?"

Persephone turned away from him. She pressed a fist to her abdomen. "Do you know what the other gods call us? The childless couple. Childless! And me, goddess of a season which brings growth and fertility to the earth!"

Hades stared at her. Of course he knew of the names his brothers and sisters on Olympus called him and he was by no means indifferent to their insults but he never realized Persephone cared one way or the other. She hated him and had always done so since he kidnapped her. She submitted to him in bed but that was as far as her acceptance went. Eventually, even her beauty and his love could not tempt him enough to brave her coldness. The adage about sleeping with a corpse perfectly described Hades' relationship with his wife. And after their marriage, she had basically turned her back on the Olympian gods, especially Zeus and her mother, whom she felt had abandoned her when she needed them most. Her angry outburst took Hades completely by surprise.

"But you despise me! I never claim to understand you but I do know your feelings for me aren't those of a loving spouse. Why should you want to carry my seed? If you so desperately want a child, what's preventing you from having one with someone else? Infidelity runs in both our …"

"Ah… wedded bliss," interrupted Shayera.

Huntress nodded in agreement. "I don't know about you but seeing them so lovey dovey almost makes me want to fly to Las Vegas and get myself married by an Elvis impersonator. Almost."


"There's an antidote? That's great! Why haven't you given it to Diana yet?"

"It's not that simple." Batman told Vixen.

"What do you mean?" Vixen's voice rose with every word. "Do you know how long those things have been in her body? The Atom says they're dividing every hour! Who knows how long…"

"I've already given the antidote to someone else."

Batman's statement was greeted with momentary silence before Vixen launched herself at the Dark Knight. Superman quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her back.

"You bastard! She was depending on you! Let me go, Superman!"

"Enough! Vixen, calm down. Batman, explain."

"There's nothing to explain. I had to make a choice and I made one." Bruce said simply and turned to the Atom. "Robert, I want you to take a look at this ring. It contains the same nanobots that infected Wonder Woman. The antidote is based on a virus which causes the nanobots to turn on their own kind, like an autoimmune reaction. Is there any way we can reprogram these nanobots to carry the virus?"

His fingers flying across the keyboard, the Atom pulled up a file on his computer. "That's an interesting idea you've got there, Batman. This is a project I was working on with a colleague a few months ago. We were studying the recent rise in certain strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis which do not respond to isoniazid and rifampin, the two drugs previously effective against TB. Our project basically builds on the concept of bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria. With the right genome, bacteriophages are even more effective than the current antibiotics because they can grow and evolve in the same way bacteria grow and evolve. Because of this arms race, there's less chance of a bacteria strain developing sustained resistance, unlike what we see in antibiotics which are static and therefore unable to adapt. It won't take me long to create a virus to infect these nanobots but it will take me a while to grow enough reprogrammed nanobots to cure Wonder Woman."

"Are you saying you need a host?" Vixen asked in disbelief.

"You've got one." Bruce removed his gloves and sliced Sethar's ring across his palm.

I didn't mean to take so long with this update but I had the biggest writer's block. I was looking back at my earlier chapters and realized it's been almost two years since I first started writing this story as a birthday gift to myself! Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it before my next b-day. As always, thank you so much to everyone who's read my little fanfic. Your comments really motivate me to keep going.