TITLE: Hearts and Minds

AUTHOR: LOTSlover

CHARACTERS: Batman / Wonder Woman

RATING: M

WARNINGS: Author Chooses Not to Use Warnings

DISCLAIMER: I love Justice League, but especially Batman and Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, I do not own the characters and, if I did, things would be much different for them.

SUMMARY: Based on the JLU episode "Dark Heart", Batman and Wonder Woman do their best to focus on the mission despite the recent change in their relationship. Will they be able to put aside their feelings for each other when the world and the team is in danger? BMWW

Hearts and Minds

Diana tightened her grip on the controls of the Javelin she was piloting, casting a fleeting glance at the Batwing flying next to her on her left. Between them, Superman kept a steady pace, helping to lead the way towards the battle that awaited them.

No one knew that they were dating, but this was going to be their first real test. Long Shadow had proven to be their first trial as a couple, one that had challenged and tested their trust in one another. This, however, was going to be their first trial facing a dangerous battle together as teammates.

She drew a deep, fortifying breath, knowing that it was going to be difficult. There was always going to be some part of her that worried about him, some part of her mind that would be occupied by him and praying for his wellbeing in battle no matter how hard she tried for it not to be so.

It was just the way that she was…the way she had always been when it came to Bruce long before they admitted having feelings for each other. Things were far different now, though. They had shared more than just their hearts and minds with each other over the last few weeks. They'd shared their bodies, their souls intertwining and connecting them in ways Diana had never imagined was possible.

Bruce and she shared something deeply profound now, something that bound them to one another on a level neither had ever experienced before. To ignore that…to push that aside in the face of battle…was going to be the most difficult thing that she'd ever done.

But she would do it because she was an Amazon and she had a job to complete.

The sound of Kal's voice in her ear drew her out of her reverie, helping her focus once more on the task at hand. "Sounds like the commander could use a little reassurance," Superman stated.

"Let's hope we can give it to him," Batman replied as he flew his Batwing.

"We'll give it to him all right and then some," Diana confidently said as she glanced back at the superheroes she was flying to the site. "Strength in numbers and all that."

"It's growing bigger," Batman commented as he scanned the creature below. "It's somehow devouring everything around it and converting it into mass."

"And those spider-like things?" Diana asked.

"The same," Batman deduced. "And once their done with the debris from the army's attempt to keep them back, they're going to spread out to those three towns."

"Diana," J'onn hailed her. "I have the communications feed from the general on the ground. Patching you through."

"This is Wonder Woman," she said. "Go ahead, general."

"This is General Eiling, USAF," he responded. "We're in the process of evacuating the three towns in the immediate vicinity. We need those things locked down."

"Then the first task is containment," she quickly decided, her mind already in battle mode.

"I've got something on board that might buy us a little more time," Batman interjected.

Diana watched as Batman flew straight towards the alien creature below, dropping an unknown substance that rapidly spread over it, creating a crystal-like shell over it. "Batman," she stated with a somewhat admonishing tone, stunned by what she saw. "What was that?"

"Fermionic gas," he told her. "Cool to within a few degrees of absolute zero."

Diana shook her head in disbelief. "Why would you have something like that on board?"

"I needed to freeze the Gotham River once," he answered her. "Long story."

Diana swore she could hear his smirk filtering into his voice as he spoke. It was indeed a story she was anxious to hear about. They watched as thousands of mechanical spiders began descending from the ridge into the valley despite Batman's attempt to slow it down.

Superman gave the signal to move in, Justice Leaguers zooming in to take on the alien spiders before they could attack the neighboring towns. Diana ran down the ramp of the Javelin she'd been piloting, her hand to her commlink. "Good job," she said as Superman landed next to her. "Surround them and close in."

"Hold on a second," Clark said, his hand brushing her forearm to stop her.

Using his x-ray vision, Superman found thousands of alien spiders running beneath the Earth's surface. As if on cue, the mechanical spiders exploded up out of the ground, launching an attack on the Justice League. Diana immediately began slamming her fists into them, destroying as many as she could, but it was futile. The spiders had their sights set on the Javelin, covering it and completely ravaging it.

"Wonder Woman…can you hear me?" General Eiling called her. "I'm in the town of Goldhanger…two clicks from you…and we're not going to get everyone out in time."

"You won't have to general," J'onn interjected. "The Watchtower is now in stationary orbit over the site. I'm clearing the binary fusion generator for firing."

"A what?" Eiling questioned him.

"It converts our space station's entire power output into a single shot," he explained. "It's like the punch of a small nuclear weapon, general."

"You're not serious?" the general asked, stunned.

"I'm very serious," J'onn stoically responded.

The entire team watched as J'onn used the Watchtower to dig a trench all the way around the alien creature in an effort to contain the spiders. "That should buy them some time to get the town's people out. Now, I want to learn about these things," Superman stated, using his x-ray vision again to probe the large creature. "I think the main space craft is replicating. There's…some kind of molecular machine inside of each of them…sort of a dark heart building around itself."

"We need Ray Palmer in Boston," Batman stated from his Batwing. "Superman, you'll get there the fastest."

"Agreed," Superman replied. "Be right back. Hold the line."

The battle continued to rage around them despite everything they did. Everything they tried seemed to only slow them down for a brief moment, but never really ebbed the tide of spiders that kept marching towards their destination.

Batman glanced out the window of his Batwing, checking on Diana. It was a luxury that he could ill afford, but he needed to know that she was all right. Despite the fact that they had agreed to focus on the mission and trust each other to make it home safely, he couldn't help the overwhelming need to see her with his own eyes…to know that she was still fighting to come home to him.

While he had been so afraid that Diana would become a distraction to him, he found now that he didn't care. He could compensate. He would make the necessary adjustments to his battle plans and fight tactics in order to include her.

He had ultimately realized that it wasn't going to be any different than any other mission that they had ever gone out on. He'd always checked on her, always watched her back in battle and now that they were lovers, it would be no different.

Diana wasn't a distraction. She was the woman that he loved, and nothing was going to take her away from him.

He growled under his breath as the battle was rapidly heating up. The trench was becoming non-existent as mechanical spiders continued to pour from the alien creature that was the mother ship. The League was being overwhelmed by them, threatening to overtake them and move on to the surrounding towns. They needed Ray and they needed him now.

"Got an ETA yet?" Batman hailed the Man of Steel. "We need you."

"Soon," Superman replied. "How's the trench holding up?"

"What trench?" Batman growled as he circled the site in an attempt to provide air support.

Flying over the self-replicating mechanical spiders, Batman fired a pair of missiles at them, watching as they exploded in front of the mother ship. "That was the last of my useful armaments," he told them. "I can't do anymore."

As he flew past the alien mother ship, large mechanical tigers jumped on the Batwing, biting holes through the metal and tearing it away as if it was nothing but tissue paper. Batman did a series of spins in an effort to get them off, but to no avail. He slammed his fist into the button for the canopy as teeth crashed into the window, opening it and flinging several batarangs at the creatures.

Batman growled to him as a mechanical tiger forced him to pull the lever, ejecting him from his Batwing in order to save himself. One of the tiger creatures fired at him, destroying his parachute and sending him plummeting towards the Earth.

"Batman to all points," he calmly stated, his hand to his commlink. "I could use some air support…since I can't fly…at all. Now would be good."

Diana glanced up at the sky, spotting Bruce in a freefall. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest, wishing she could get to him, but she was currently trying to keep two mechanical spiders from stabbing her. "Hera," she murmured, praying that someone could get to Bruce.

Superman swooped in at the last second, grabbing hold of Batman and wrapping an arm around his waist to keep him from hitting the ground. "The spiders are forcing us back," Batman updated him as if he hadn't almost died, "and the mother ship is releasing mechanical attack tigers to protect them. Where's the Atom?"

"It's getting sweaty in here," Atom called out. "Is that Batman?"

"Find Wonder Woman and get us down," Batman ordered Superman, needing to get to Diana to regroup.

"This is a losing battle. We destroy one, the main vessel breeds three more," Diana ground out in fury as Batman and Superman landed next to her. She turned her attention to Atom who took full form in front of her. "Welcome to our nightmare. Can you help?"

"Look at those," Atom muttered in utter astonishment. "It's amazing."

"Ray," Superman called to him, refocusing him. "Tell them what you told me."

"These things build copies of themselves using whatever material is around and they'll only stop when everything is gone," Atom informed them.

"So, it isn't just about these three towns?" Diana surmised.

"No," Atom said, turning to her. "They'll go coast to coast and then across the sea bed. They'll use rock, metal, plastic, plant life—"

"People," Batman added.

"Yes," Atom confirmed. "And destroying the replicated machines isn't enough. You have to get to the system's core control."

"We destroy the mother ship," Diana said, her hands curling into fists. She was more than prepared to do it herself. The problem was getting close to it.

"You have to understand making metal out of a rock is a microscopic process," Atom attempted to explain to them. "The core control is issuing instructions at an atomic scale. You can't just smash up a machine the size of an infection. Leave a crumb of it intact and it will start all over again. You have to get me to the main ship. I have to go inside that thing and reprogram it."

"All points…this is Batman. We have a new plan," he commandingly announced over his commlink. "We have to get the Atom to the main vessel. Superman puts him and Wonder Woman there, half of us back her up. Everyone else, we draw a line here. No one is going to die because of us."

Batman turned to look at Diana, his heart hammering despite his best to control it. She could not die here. He refused to allow it. They shared a heartfelt look, conveying in that one brief moment all the things that couldn't be spoken.

Steeling himself against his heart, Batman squared his shoulders, his voice that of the Bat. "Go," he finally said, releasing the breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding.

"Ready?" Diana asked Atom who was standing in the palm of her hand.

"Just don't squeeze," Atom told her.

"Let's go to work," Superman said as he lifted up into the air.

Batman watched as Diana took off, a myriad of thoughts and emotions running rampant through his mind and assaulting his heart. He knew that he couldn't dwell on any of it right then. Too many people were depending on him to do his job, including her…and he wouldn't let her down.

"We need more cover!" Superman yelled as they came under heavy attack from the mechanical spiders.

Batman touched his commlink, turning to check on Diana. "Supergirl…Green Lantern…more air support for Wonder Woman."

Wielding his batarangs, Batman sliced through one mechanical spider after another, destroying as many as possible in hopes of buying Diana and Atom more time. He watched in horror as one of the mechanical tigers pounced on her, pinning her to the ground. Its large jaws snapped at her, its razor-sharp teeth ready to end her.

She did her best to fight it off, but it was more than difficult with Atom in her hand. Thankfully, Green Lantern was quick to her rescue, destroying it with his power ring. Bruce was slightly amused and more than a little annoyed when Diana placed Doctor Palmer in her cleavage before taking to the air once more.

They were definitely going to have a discussion about that later.

Diana fought like a true Amazon warrior, going toe-to-toe with the mechanical spiders. Attempting to stop her, they all jumped on her at once, completely blocking her from view only for them to be destroyed by an Amazon who was beyond furious and more than resolved to finish this.

Grabbing her lasso, she snagged hold of a spider, whipping it around in a fierce circle and destroying the spiders flying towards her in an attempt to stop her. "Go!" she yelled at Atom.

Atom immediately entered the mother ship, working his way deeper inside. "Palmer to Batman," he hailed the Dark Knight. "I think I'm almost there. Stand by."

"What's your status?" Batman asked.

"Wow…this is incredible," Atom murmured, completely amazed. "Every atom of it is filled with a book's worth of information. It's beautifully simple…it's…"

"Save it for the autopsy," Batman barked at him, forcing him to focus.

"I think I can access it," Atom told him. "I knew it. It carries its own history. It copies it into each replicant. Batman, can you hear me? It's a war machine."

"What was your first clue?" he rasped darkly, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Two planets at war…its builders launched it at a whole other planet like a cruise missile," he explained. "It ate an entire planet and it followed its programming. Reproduce…go to the next occupied planet…reproduce. Maybe this war was fought across the galaxy, but it doesn't know the war is over. If I'm reading the symbols right, the original device was constructed more than fifty thousand years ago."

Atom yelled out as tentacles suddenly appeared out of nowhere, slamming into him with an electrical energy. "Ray!" Batman yelled into his commlink. "Ray!"

Batman grunted as he took a direct hit by a mechanical spider, causing him to crash to the ground. "Batman!" Ray called. "I've lost contact. Are you there?"

Dodging the tentacles, Atom finally found the core control. He tried slamming his fist into it, but it was futile. It refused to be destroyed. Enlarging his size, he tried hitting it again, slamming both fists into the core control with all his might.

Several spiders jumped Batman, pinning him to the ground only to be saved by Doctor Light. "Atom…we're about out of time," Batman called to him as Light carried him away. "What's happening in there?"

"It didn't break," he responded. "I couldn't break the heart. It…"

"It what?" Batman demanded to know, his patience running razor thin.

"I couldn't break the heart…but I bet I could give it a heart attack," he suddenly realized. "These arteries are feeding liquified matter into the heart. If I can interrupt that flow…starve it of matter…build up some pressure…"

Diana growled furiously as a large spider pinned her to the ground. She threw up a forearm, attempting to block the mechanical leg that was about to pierce through her forehead. "Diana!" Batman yelled from his position, unable to get to her as he fought back spiders that continued to come no matter what they did.

She gritted her teeth, using every bit of strength that she had to hold it back, but it was proving to be too strong even for her. It continued to grow closer, the razor-sharp point of its mechanical leg just inches away from her head.

Just when she thought it was over, the spider abruptly withdrew its mechanical leg only to collapse on its back. Batman ran towards Diana, his heart hammering as she got up onto her feet. Batman touched his commlink as Superman landed on her other side.

"Ray can you hear me…come in," Batman hailed him.

The three heroes quickly made their way towards the alien creatures, holding their breath to see if Ray made it out of there alive. "There…is that…" Superman began, pointing to a spot in the alien fluid pouring out of the creature.

Atom abruptly grew back to his normal size before them, bent over on his hands and knees as fluid poured over him. "That…was disgusting," he muttered.

Diana moved to his side, helping him up onto his feet. "You did it, Ray," she told him. "You stopped it."

They began helping with clean up, all of them gathering as Eiling began to take the alien creature away. "I don't suppose you need any help destroying that?" Superman asked General Eiling, his gaze intent and knowing. "Wouldn't want that technology falling into the wrong hands."

"We can learn a lot from it," Eiling told him. "It almost beat the Justice League after all."

"Why would you need something to do that, general?" Diana pointedly asked him, her blue eyes narrowing dangerously as she glared at him.

"Oh, I don't know," Eiling coyly responded, turning his attention to Wonder Woman. "Maybe because it turns out the Justice League had a secret space-based weapon of massive destruction all along…and we are going to be talking about that someday. Believe me, ma'am."

"Amazing," Atom murmured. "Show him a weapon that destroyed its creators and every other thing it saw, and he wants to play with it. What's to stop history from replaying itself right here on Earth?"

"We are," Superman stated as he watched the helicopter lift into the sky.

Batman silently turned to leave, only to realize that his Batwing was no more. Not making eye contact with Diana, he touched his gauntlet, transporting himself directly to his Batcave. Diana sighed inwardly as she watched him disappear from sight, knowing that they couldn't allow any emotion to seep through on the field.

She knew that they both needed a little time to decompress from the harrowing experience they had just gone through. They had come very close to being defeated this time…too close to even think about. There were times that she had feared that she had lost him only for Bruce to come through at the very last moment.

It had rattled her far more than she cared to think about. Right now, she just wanted a shower and some sleep. Later, once they'd had a little time to recover, she wanted to just hold him—to feel his muscular body against hers, to hear his heartbeat beneath her ear, to hear his voice and feel his warm breath against her skin.

Returning to the Watchtower, Diana made a beeline for her quarters. Entering, she immediately stripped off her uniform and headed straight for the bathroom. She took a long, hot shower, savoring the feel of the water against her skin…the way that it pulsated against her sore muscles. If she wasn't so anxious to see Bruce, she'd stay in here for a while longer.

Exiting, she quickly dried off, slipping into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Opening the door to her quarters, she found the man that she had been thinking about standing before her. "Princess," he softly murmured, his voice low and husky.

The corner of her lips quirked with his appearance. She stepped aside, allowing him entrance before founders began questioning why the Dark Knight was loitering outside of her quarters. "I was just coming to find you," she confessed as the door slid shut behind her, running her fingers through her damp hair.

"I couldn't wait another moment," he murmured.

Diana barely had time to register what he had just said before his cowl and gauntlets were thrown off, his fingers weaving into her hair as he pulled her into a heated kiss that quickly stole her breath. She moaned deeply as he kissed her senseless, his one hand tightly gripping her hair while his other settled low on her back.

He pressed her pelvis against his, grinding his hips against hers. Her fingers found his hair still damp from his own shower, her hand settling on the back of his neck as reassuring kisses laced with lust continued to be given and received.

"I was so afraid I was going to lose you today," he breathlessly told her, placing butterfly kisses over her cheeks and nose.

"I thought the same about you," she murmured, her lips finding his again as her fingers deftly began removing his uniform.

She was desperate to feel him so alive in her arms, so hot and hard inside of her. She swiftly had him out of his uniform as he pushed her jeans down past her hips. She lifted her arms as he pulled her t-shirt over her head, tossing it aside to land on top of his uniform pants. Their underclothes quickly followed.

His hands wrapped around her thighs as he lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. He roughly pushed her up against the wall behind her, his mouth devouring hers with a fierce passion and lust that refused to be denied…one that begged to be sated by her and only her.

She gasped and moaned as he assaulted her throat, trailing biting kisses along her neck before finding her ear. "You know…I didn't really appreciate the fact that Ray Palmer got up close and personal with your cleavage, princess," he growled against her ear, his lips finding the sensitive spot behind it.

He raked his teeth over her skin before closing his lips over it and sucking hard. She tilted her head back, gasping at the ceiling as she looped her arm around his neck. "I…I didn't…really have…a choice," she panted, her chest heaving as he abruptly drove his hips into hers, filling her full of him with one hard thrust.

She cried out her pleasure, her mind swimming with only thoughts of him and the pleasure that was shooting like lightning through her body. "Just remember, princess," he growled as he thrust hard again. "You're mine…and I don't share."

The raw, possessive emotion that filled his throat caused a shiver to race up her spine. She raked her fingers over his back as he repeatedly drove into her, showing her exactly how he felt about her…what she did to him by doing nothing at all.

Regaining some semblance of thought, Diana managed to find her voice, her throat dry and her tone breathless. "You remember…Dark Knight…" she managed to utter. "I don't…share either."

To drive her point home to him, she clenched her inner walls around his hardened length, grinding her hips hard against him and earning a strangled cry of pleasure from her lover. His mouth slammed into hers as he kissed her again, both of them knowing that they had managed to survive another battle.

As he carried her to her bed to continue what they had started, he knew there would be many more battles like this that awaited them in the future, ones where they would have no idea if the other was going to make it home or not that night.

He also knew that they would face them together because they were more than teammates and colleagues…more than close friends. They were even more than just a couple…far more than lovers. They were connected—hearts and minds.