The scene in the JLA Council Room was reflective of the mood of its occupants. Cautious optimism and elation mixed as the group listened to Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Superman brief them.
With each of them overcoming the challenges ahead of them, the pact between Diana and Ares had been honored. It was the Fates, spinning eternally, that had allowed the next few events to happen. Zeus and the rest of the gods had been sprung free from Tartarus. Ares and Chronos had been consigned to Tartarus. The Timor, spawned by Chaos and Aether had ceased to exist, vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared. The Oans had removed the Green Lanterns who had succumbed to temptation and were working on refining the rest of the Corps. Fanci's would-be assassin was one such rogue Green Lantern, now facing trial for his crimes.
The cities that had been attacked / affected were restored to their original state by the grace of Athena. It had been Superman's request that the collective consciousness of the human beings be altered so that the trauma that people had lived through would be eliminated. Hermes had done the same for all the living beings of the Universe, not just Earth. It would take time for peace to return to some sectors of the Universe but it was a first step.
Ares' plan had been many years in the planning and sly implementation. So clever had been the plan to avoid detection that Ares had first engineered the dissolution of the Turix Confederation and established the Timor, and the infiltration of the Green Lantern Corps in every sector, across time. Only then did Ares launch his attack on Zeus and the rest, capturing them, at about the time that Wonder Woman, Superman and the rest had landed in the future.
Athena was now ruler of Olympus, with Zeus by her side as Counselor. The gods had learned their lesson as well. Athena's first act was to ensure that the gates of Tartarus were guarded by the Amazons. Hermes had been dispatched to heal the wounds left by the rift in the weft of Time. Aphrodite, well, Aphrodite was Aphrodite. Her role in Ares' scheme had been condoned by Athena, who was wise enough to know that Love was much needed in the healing process.
A grateful Athena had met each of the four heroes separately, leaving no doubt of her willingness to grant any desire or request that they might have. Each had spoken separately but none had shared with the others the result of the conversation.
J'onn looked around the room and remembered the very different images of the Leaguers that he had seen and wisely decided not to talk about it.
Each of the heroes whose lives had changed briefly, thought about the alternate lives they would have lived had events played out differently in their lives – they all retained some idea of what might have been.
And things were back to normal.
Or so it seemed.
There was still some unfinished business to be taken care of.
Superman met Wonder Woman in her private suite of rooms at Themyscira House. She had made him a promise and he was going to hold her to it.
"Diana," he murmured as soon as he saw her. "Diana."
Then unable to stop himself, he pulled her towards him. He crushed her mouth with his, ravaged it, without any of the warm and stirring tenderness he'd shown her be fore. His body pressed unrelentingly against hers so that the pounding of his heart seemed to ram inside her.
Diana brought her hands up with some idea of... with no idea at all. And they fell limply to her sides again.
Superman raised his head and drew a ragged breath. "Do you know how I felt when you walked away with Ares? Something snapped inside of me when I saw his hands on you."
Diana looked back at him, her clear blue eyes, deep warm pools of understanding.
"Yes," he continued as he gently held her close to him, inhaling her scent. "I was angry over that, and furious with myself, as well, for not being able to protect you better."
"Kal," she said gently, "Kal, you can't think that you have to protect me all the time. I was raised a warrior, I am the best of the Amazons, I can protect myself."
"I'm not thinking that you need protection. I'm thinking that you need to be protected for me. I love you, Diana. I always have. I'm tired of waiting for the perfect moment to say it."
The color rose in Diana's cheeks, prettily pink. "Okay," she said, "Okay."
A slow trickle of liquid warmth inside her quickly be came a fast flood as she put her arms around him. "Okay, Kal," she said, nestling closer to him, fitting the curves of her body into the hard planes of his.
"Okay? Is that the best you can do?"
"Shh…" She wrapped her arms tighter. "I think I love you."
Ka's deep voice rumbled through his chest, she could hear him say, "think?"
She eased away so their eyes could meet. "I knew for certain when Ares made me choose. When I thought I might never see you again, I was filled with regret that I hadn't told you how I felt."
Kal's grip on her hair gentled until his fingers were stroking through it. He brought his lips to hers, slid them both into a long, sumptuous kiss.
He lifted his head, an inch only, so his face blurred in her vision. "Don't you ever do that to me again. Are we clear on that now?" he demanded.
Words rushed into her throat, babbling words that stuck there as she stared into his hot and glittering eyes. When she could do no more than shake her head, he cap tured her mouth again.
Her ears began to ring, reminding her she was holding her breath. But when she let it out, it sounded like a moan. He swept her into his arms.
Really, she could think of no other way to describe how he plucked her off her feet.
"Sweet Aphrodite," was the best she could manage when he carried her into the bedroom, kicked the door shut be hind them.
Still hugging her, he brushed his lips over hers. "Kiss me back now. I need you."
In all her life, people had said those three words to her often enough.
But no one had said them with the intensity that Kal did.
Knowing how powerful he was, knowing that he was Superman, hearing him acknowledge that he needed her.
The thrill of hearing him say it spurted through her, flooded her heart and gushed into the kiss. She threw her arms around him, shifting her body so it pressed against his with an abandon neither of them had expected.
Rocked, he dug his fingers into her flesh, struggled for about two seconds to maintain some reasonable control. Then he tumbled her back and did just what he wanted to do. He sank his teeth into her.
She rose under him, like a woman riding a wave, and with no thought but the taking, tugging at his uniform, pulling at her own. "I want... I want..."
"So do I." He was breathless now, with muscles quiver ing. There was the taste of her skin, warm and sweet in his mouth, the feel of it, silky smooth, under his hands. And the surprising, delightful enthusiasm of her as she ran her firm hands over him.
She was so deliciously built, and the curves of her body so delightful voluptuous. Her scent was a quiet, very female drift that slowly hazed the senses until it seemed as though he could simply breathe her in. Eager to explore, he let his lips rush down her body, back up to those full lovely breasts.
Back to her warm, willing mouth.
He skimmed his thumbs, whisper light, over the swell of her breasts. And she began to tremble. He bent down to rub his lips over hers as he tugged her uniform away from her body. He used his thumbs again, running them over her nipples until heat balled in her belly.
The tenderness of it had her muscles trembling and her belly doing one long, lazy roll. When he deepened the kiss it was all warmth, and a whole lot of heat.
For one of the first times in her life she stood poised on absolute surrender, with a man in total control of her.
Heart, body, mind.
It terrified her. And it filled her.
He was murmuring something, or perhaps he was shout ing it. There was such a roaring in her head, she couldn't tell. Her system was barraged by a series of long, liquid pulls, of quick, slapping jolts with each sensation rapping so hard into the next it wasn't possible to separate them.
And her body absorbed them greedily, then called for more.
And his, his was so firm and smooth, and hot. Was it any wonder her hands were in such a rush to touch? When she did she could feel the quiver of a muscle, the wild leap of a pulse.
Need. It was need for her.
Then she forgot his need for her own when his fingers slid slickly over her, into her. She could do nothing more than fist her hands in the rumpled bedspread, holding on even as she flew.
His mouth came back to hers, and she opened. Opened everything, so that when he thrust inside her, he entered both heart and body.
He said her name again. It seemed to echo endlessly in his head as he sank into her, into that wet heat. She rose to him, fell away, rose again until the rhythm was like music. He lost himself in it, in her, as the beat became more ur gent, and urgency became desperation. And desperation a brilliant pleasure that swallowed them both whole.
Weak and wrecked, she lay under him. In some dim area of consciousness she was aware of his weight, of the galloping race of his heart, even of the shallow breaths he took. But she was much more aware of the lovely limp stretch of her own body, of the hot river of her own blood that swam under her skin.
A part of her mind continued to huddle in a corner and gape with shock and Amazonian disapproval.
She'd made fran tic, reckless love with her best friend, a man she trusted with all her heart and soul.
A man she loved beyond life.