Chapter 41

Diana's stomach was a bundle of nerves as she made her way through the Watchtower hallways on Tuesday morning.

She'd thought more than once about simply not inviting Dinah and Ollie to her wedding at all, but in the end, the idea of giving into cowardice was even less appealing than the judgment she'd inevitably face from her quite-possibly-former friends when she announced her imminent marriage and then had the gall to invite them to it.

But Oliver and Dinah were her friends, or had been, at least, once. Being the one to further slice apart their friendship by snubbing them from a wedding invitation didn't sit any better with Diana than cowardice.

Lex had offered good advice; it never hurt to offer the gift of friendship. Whether or not it was accepted, at least Diana could comfort herself afterwards with the knowledge that she'd done her best to maintain her relationships with the people that she cared about.

Still. Inviting them wasn't going to be easy.

"Good morning, Dinah," Diana said to the Black Canary as she entered the monitoring room, where the fishnet clad superhero was on duty along with four or five other heroes who were scattered throughout the large chamber.

"Oh, Diana," Dinah replied, swiveling in her chair to look at her. "I didn't see you on the duty roster for this morning," she said curiously.

"I'm not," Diana said.

The Amazon princess hesitated for only the barest second before dropping into the empty chair next to Black Canary.

"I, um, wanted to give you an invitation," Diana said, feeling a blush start to stain her cheeks as she fumbled her words.

Hera, her mother would be furious if she could hear her well-bred princess now!

Decorum, dignity, and diligence, Diana, Hippolyta used to remind her daughter time and time again before an important social event.

Perhaps she could have spent a bit more time on diligence, Diana inwardly sighed. She had written out her invitation with the time and address of her wedding in an elegant script on a lovely piece of stationery that Lex had produced for her last night after they had returned home from Themyscira, but Diana had only put together a few words in her head to say to Dinah right before falling asleep.

It had been a very draining day with her mother, after all, and Diana wasn't expecting a good response from Black Canary no matter how she phrased her invite this morning. Still, the princess felt herself suddenly wishing that she'd bothered to rehearse rather than fumbling away her dignity like she was now doing.

Dinah was waiting patiently for her to continue, Diana realized with a start. In her nervousness, the princess shoved her invitation rather awkwardly towards her friend without saying another word. Mortification seeped through Diana's bones as Dinah took the card from her and read it over, her eyebrows climbing higher and higher until they ran out of room to go.

"Oliver is invited too, of course," Diana mumbled as Dinah blinked several times and deliberately shut her agape mouth before daring to raise her eyes to meet Diana's.

At least Diana wasn't the only one flustered now, because Dinah looked to be some ghastly combination of horrified and hoodwinked and her mouth was falling open again without any sound emanating.

Which, considering what Canary could have let loose with, was not the worst possible outcome.

"Friday," Dinah finally gasped and Diana nodded.

"I'll, um, I'll have to check with Ollie," Dinah said hoarsely and Diana nodded again.

"Of course," she said. "You can let me know."

Diana rose and was about to make a relieved escape when Dinah nervously asked, "Who… who are you inviting? From the League?"

"The Founders and Kara, besides you and Ollie," Diana said.

"Oh," Dinah said, now looking terribly guilty and miserable as well as appalled. "Ok, well, I'll talk to Ollie. And get back to you," she said evasively and Diana nodded again.

"Have a good shift," Diana said as she left.

"Holy fucking hell," Dinah whispered to herself as soon as the door shut behind the princess.

On the other side of the door, Diana took a moment to slump in a very undignified manner against the wall and take several deep breaths. She felt like a fool. All her mother's training gone out the window, and right after returning from Themyscira, no less! Diana softly pounded the back of her head against the metal bulkhead.

If only she'd prepared more, she could have given Dinah a lovely little speech about how much she loved Lex, and Diana could have acted proud to be marrying him instead of ashamed. But instead, Diana had given in to emotional weariness and fatigue last night as an excuse to shirk her responsibilities, and now she felt guilty for failing to properly defend both Lex and their upcoming marriage.

With a small groan, Diana set off to find Kara, who was usually down in the gym at this hour, working out under red solar lights to build muscle tone and develop peak form for off-world environments where the lack of a yellow sun would render her as fragile as an ordinary human.

Supergirl had been far from thrilled at Batman's insistence on her new training regimen as a condition of joining the Justice League. The young Kryptonian was a teenager in every sense of the word and preferred relying on her powers to carry her through battles, even going so far as to argue that she shouldn't be assigned to off-world missions due to the potential weaknesses that they might cause her.

But the snarky Bat had brusquely informed Supergirl that her cousin Superman was subjected to the same mandatory red-solar training, including combat training with Wildcat while under his weakened powers, and that Kara would not be joining the League if she was too undisciplined to do the same.

Clark had sighed when Bruce filled him in on the tense exchange over lunch with Diana that day.

"She's young," Clark had tried to say, but the Bat had pinned him with a glare.

"I was training with monks in Mongolia by the time I was her age. Kara is a loose cannon who will do more harm than good until she learns to take orders and get some self-control," Batman growled.

"I agree," Diana had surprised Clark by saying. "I was never allowed to talk back to my mentors or sass my instructors on Themyscira. We don't learn to be responsible in battle by being willful off the field."

"Exactly," Batman had grunted, warming Diana's heart with the cozy closeness that she so loved feeling with her fellow warrior, which she had hoped way back then would lead to an inevitable romance.

Now, though, instead of thinking of Bruce, Diana's heart was filled with regret over her own undisciplined state of mind. Before dating Lex, Diana would never have dreamed of going to bed instead of preparing for the next day's tasks, no matter how mundane they might be. After all, her mother had drilled into her that the mundane tasks in life were the proving ground for the difficult ones and that no task, however small, was worthy of dishonor or shoddy work.

But last night, Diana and Lex had ordered a late-night dinner after their flight home and then curled up on the couch afterwards, Diana's head laying in Lex's lap as he massaged her scalp and played with her long hair, all the while devotedly listening to Diana's sporadic eruptions of leftover emotion from Hippolyta's numerous upsetting revelations.

And Lex had been amazing, Diana thought to herself with a soft sigh. He'd empathized and consoled, and encouraged and teased, too, getting her to laugh from time to time in a way that had slowly lifted her spirits.

She'd almost fallen asleep there in his lap, so when Lex had scooped her up and carried her to bed, tucking her in most tenderly and curling himself around her on top of the blankets to spoon her until she fell asleep, could Diana really be blamed for only haphazardly planning out her encounter with Black Canary with the briefest of thoughts before sliding off into slumber?

Of course, she would have had ample time to strategize her speech on the javelin ride into the Watchtower this morning, but Diana had deliberately taken the shuttle instead of flying out to a zeta tube so that she could look through all of the wonderful wedding planning information that Tess had sent to her and Lex in anticipation of that afternoon's in-person consultation, and, well, how Diana broke the news to Dinah about her wedding had seemed far less important at the time - or interesting, if Diana was being honest.

Hera, was this the first step in a slow descent to slovenly work ethics, Diana wondered to herself with concern as she approached the red-lighted gym. She sighed. At least she expected a better reaction from Kara than she had gotten from Dinah, which shouldn't really excuse Diana's equal lack of preparation for inviting the teenager to her wedding, but, there it was.

Diana Prince, the once near-perfect Amazonian Princess, emblem of regality and grace, was beginning to act startlingly common. It was unnerving. And... embarrassing.

Kara was grunting while lifting weights when Diana stepped into the gym, but the Kryptonian perked up eagerly when she saw the princess.

"Diana!" Kara said with joyful relief. "I could use a break."

Diana frowned.

"Are you in the middle of your sets?" she asked.

Kara groaned.

"I have one more set on the shoulder press," she grumbled.

"I'll wait," Diana said peacefully, seating herself on an empty weight bench and mentally noting that Kara's maturity was still sadly lacking if she was not only willing but eager to disrupt her workout and sabotage its effectiveness for a chat.

Kara could have asked Diana to wait, after all. The princess might need to bring the incident up at Kara's next Founders' review. Supergirl had so much potential, if only she could learn to harness it, Diana thought to herself with some concern.

The Justice League's unexpected encounter with Diana's fellow Amazon Aresia had deeply shaken the princess last year. Aresia had been a mortal shipwreck survivor whom the Amazons had gifted with their own strength, only to see Aresia abandon Themyscira and turn villainess when she reached adulthood.

Ever since their brutal battle with her former sister and friend, Diana had secretly nursed a brooding anxiety for Supergirl's future.

Kara had been sent alone to a strange planet populated with a physically inferior alien race while burdened with the knowledge that her planet and friends and family were no more. It would have been hard for an adult to handle, but Kara was smack in the middle of the most headstrong years of any being's life.

Not to mention, Kara had been sent to Earth expecting to find her cousin Kal-El as a baby who she'd raise and watch over. The girl had mentally prepared herself to be the superior source of knowledge and wisdom and strength, only to have inadvertently remained in suspended animation while Clark grew up.

Being reanimated only to learn that she, Kara, was the child and now expected to submit to not only her grown-up baby cousin, but to his human parents in Smallville, of all places? It had to have been a lot for Kara to bear.

And Diana empathized, she did, and she also saw Kara's good heart and good intentions - but Diana and the Amazons had once believed in Aresia's good heart, too. So, Diana worried.

"I'm ready now," Kara broke into her thoughts by saying.

"Good," Diana said. "Finish your rotation the next time, before taking a break," the princess gently instructed. "I would have said if it was an emergency."

"Ok, ok," Kara sighed, which Diana supposed was a better response than it could have been.

"What's up?" the teenager asked her.

"Well," Diana said, trying to do a better job this time in finding the words, "Lex and I have decided to get married this Friday night, and we'd love for you to come," she said, handing the invitation over to Kara.

There. That had come out well, Diana thought. Why couldn't she have said it that coherently to Dinah?

"Oh, my gosh!" Kara exclaimed, her eyes going big and excited as she stared at the invite. "Of course I'll come!" she said, smiling widely.

"What should I wear?" she asked Diana a second later, looking up with slightly worried question marks in her eyes.

"Well, it's a private club, but more like a very nice bar," Diana said, thinking. "A dress would be appropriate."

"How fancy, though?" Kara asked a little more hesitantly, clearly concerned about getting it right.

Diana gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I am the wrong person to be asking these questions," she admitted. "But," the princess said, brightening, "Vixen is coming, and she ought to know exactly what would be right."

"And," Diana continued, suddenly wondering if finances were causing the teenager concern when not all of the tension left Kara's shoulders, "if you don't have anything that Vixen thinks would do, I'd be happy to buy you a new dress."

"Oh, I don't know…" Kara started to say, blushing a little bit into her shoulder.

"Kara," Diana said firmly. "Lex is a billionaire and I have his credit card. I would be delighted to take you shopping."

"Well, when you put it that way," Kara giggled in relief, "you're the greatest, Diana!" she said, throwing her arms around the Amazon in a sweaty hug.

"I'm glad someone still thinks so," Diana sighed as she tightly hugged the girl back, not minding her perspiration in the slightest.

Kara gave her a knowing look when she pulled away.

"Not everybody's excited about your wedding, huh," she said.

"I'm just glad that you are," Diana said honestly. "It means a lot, Kara. Really."

Kara smiled at her before groaning slightly.

"I guess I'd better finish my workout before talking to Vixen," she said reluctantly.

"Yes," Diana beamed at her. "That is an excellent plan of action," she said.

"Oh," Diana said, turning back as she reached the door, "Shayera and Lois are throwing a bachelorette rampage for me on Thursday night. You're invited to that, too."

"A rampage?!" Kara squealed. "That sounds amazing! We're going to be destroying buildings? Like in the video game?"

"Battling foes, I think?" Diana said, wrinkling her brow. "I'm not exactly sure. Shayera is still working out the details."

"Whatever it is, I'm in," Kara said enthusiastically.


Diana sighed with relief as she left the gym and headed to her now mostly-uninhabited quarters. It was still nice to have a private spot on the Watchtower that she could escape to, but it was nicer still to be living with Lex, Diana smiled to herself.

One invitation left, and Diana didn't expect anything other than mild teasing at worst, and then only if Arthur joined the call that she was about to make to Queen Mera in Atlantis. Mera, being subjected to far more royal scrutiny than her outspoken husband, would surely handle an invitation with decorum, Diana thought with comfort, no matter what jovial banter Arthur might produce on the matter.

"Princess Diana!" Mera smiled at her once her royal attendants had summoned her for the incoming video chat, "how lovely to hear from you!" Mera said. "I so enjoyed my visit with your mother last week."

"I had opportunity to visit my mother yesterday, your Majesty," Diana said, "and the queen also mentioned how delighted she had been to partake of your company."

Mera beamed at her and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"I am alone in my study," she said. "Except for Arthur Junior, that is," she added, looking down at her infant son who was sleeping in her arms, gnawing on a teething ring.

"Perhaps we could dispense with the formalities and use our given names…?" the queen asked with a sly smile.

"That would be lovely, Mera," Diana smiled back. "Thank you. It felt quite strange to be back on Themyscira yesterday after so long away and I fear I have become a bit rusty with my etiquette."

"A fact which your mother no doubt pointed out to you," Mera said with eyes twinkling.

"Yes," Diana sighed with a rueful chuckle. "I've felt her perched on my shoulder all morning, scolding me."

"Where a mother always should be," Mera laughed. "Isn't that right, baby Arthur?" she cooed to her son, who blissfully slept on, untroubled by his mother's gentle threats.

"But to what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call, Diana?" Mera asked the Amazonian princess, looking like she had been about to say more, but suddenly biting her tongue, which Diana might have filed away in her brain as slightly odd, if she hadn't been feeling quite so defeated and out of sorts from the morning's faux pas.

Instead, Diana scarcely noticed the queen's brief inelegance and forged ahead with her reason for calling.

"Well," Diana said, her smile growing slightly warmer, because if anyone could understand loving your enemy, it was Queen Mera, who had originally been ordered by the ruler of her exiled colony of Altanteans to assassinate the King of Atlantis and instead had fallen in love with Arthur and married him, "Lex and the Justice League successfully put almost all of his villainous colleagues behind bars Sunday night, so we decided to go ahead and get married on Friday," Diana said.

"We'd love for you and Arthur to come. And Arthur Junior, too, if you'd like," Diana added.

"Oh, how thrilling!" Mera exclaimed, genuinely meaning it, and to her dismay, Diana found her eyes clogging with tears despite the smile that broke out on her face.

"Thank you for thinking so, Mera," Diana said brokenly, wiping away her tears with the back of a hand.

"Oh, Diana," Mera said with empathy. "I can imagine that very few people understand your decision, or the feelings that led you to it. It's not easy, sometimes, following love," the queen said more softly, and Diana shook her head.

"It's not," she agreed. "I hate causing my friends so much grief, and my mother - Oh, Mera, when she found out I was marrying a man -"

The queen burst out laughing.

"Oh, dear," Mera finally said, wiping her eyes. "Will Queen Hippolyta attend your wedding, then?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Diana said, her insides not quite done unfurling with relief that her mother hadn't refused her invitation. "Mother did finally agree to come, although she threatened to run Lex through if he attempted any villainy."

"Of course she did," Mera chuckled. "I would help her, for that matter," she said. "No one betrays such a dear friend and lives," the former assassin said with an only partially-playful ferocious glare.

"Thank you," Diana smiled. "I promise you that I won't need defending, but I am grateful that you cherish our friendship."

"Indeed I do," Mera said. "No one else truly understands my complaints about the royal nonsense I must endure," Mera groaned dramatically.

"Oh, Hera," Diana moaned back. "That's why my mother's spirit was haunting me this morning. I completely failed to prepare for how I would deliver my wedding invitation to Black Canary and I was a stumbling, mumbling mess! I have never been so embarrassed," Diana groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

Mera made a sympathetic noise before wrinkling her brow in consideration.

"Perhaps that's a blessing, though, to not have to live up to such exacting standards anymore. You don't fear that Black Canary will respect you less as a leader, do you? Due to your lack of composure?"

"No," Diana sighed. "I'm quite sure that Dinah has already lost all respect for me as a leader due to my choice of husband. Stuttering over the invitation no doubt paled in comparison to the occasion which it was for," Diana sighed.

"I'm sorry," Mera said honestly. "I know how hard you worked to be respected by your co-founders in the Justice League at first, and then worked harder still to be embraced rather than feared by the Earth-dwellers. It must be a painful loss."

And Diana's heart swelled with consolation at Mera's frank assessment of the situation and her echoing knowledge of grief. False comfort in the form of platitudes would have been foolish and ineffective, but Mera's quiet understanding? It meant the world to Diana.

"It has been difficult," Diana acknowledged, her eyes dropping for a moment, downcast.

"Your love will be worth it," Mera promised her, a happy glow lighting her face as she thought of Arthur, and their son, and their life together.

"Some parts of your life will always be difficult, though," Mera cautioned as Diana raised her head again.

"I miss my family on Xebel terribly and they would never understand the path I chose for myself. And marriage and motherhood can also be inordinately difficult at times," Mera chuckled with a wry amusement that she knew Diana could not yet understand, as freshly doe-eyed as Wonder Woman was in the honeymoon stage of her love.

"But it's still worth it?" Diana asked her friend, looking slightly nervous at the more experienced woman's words.

"Always," Mera declared without hesitation.


"J'onn," Batman growled in the Batcave, with Shayera looking over his shoulder as they answered the Martian Manhunter's incoming video call. "You have some news?"

"Not the most helpful news, I am afraid," J'onn said with a slight wrinkling of his brow. "I have thoroughly examined all of the employee logs for the period when Green Lantern was incapacitated on the station, which I have cross-referenced with the security footage."

"Barring the infiltration of shape-shifters," J'onn said, "every employee on the Watchtower when John's memories were forged was legitimate."

"That's not unhelpful," Shayera said, drumming her fingers unseen by J'onn on Bruce's muscular thigh. "Ruling out possibilities narrows the field of suspects."

Batman grunted, deep in thought.

"You didn't sense a presence in John's mind the day he was hungover last week, did you?" he asked J'onn. "When he got a worse headache during the Founders' meeting?"

"No…" J'onn answered slowly, "but I did not fully enter his mind as I did when retrieving his memories. You suspect the two events are related?" J'onn said, drawing his eyebrows together in concern.

"Two blackouts in the space of a week for a man who never blacks out?" Batman said thoughtfully. "And a sudden stabbing headache in the middle of a meeting? Check the security footage and let me know exactly what we were discussing right before his pain flared up."

"Please," Shayera added with a twinkle in her eye, causing her Bat to scoff affectionately, although the corner of his mouth curled up the tiniest bit.

"Please," Batman growled with an eye roll to J'onn, who chuckled.

"Shayera is a refining influence on you, Batman," J'onn said.

"Now that's something no one in my life has ever once said about me before," Shayera laughed in amazement.

"The bar is low where Batman is concerned," J'onn teased, earning a rude raspberry back from Shayera.

"Batcave out," Batman huffed, cutting off the link.

Shayera giggled as she pressed her face into Batman's shoulder, prompting him to lift his arm and wrap it around her as she snuggled a little closer and curled her wing around his back.

"What's our next step, Detective?" Shayera asked with a smile while she traced her fingers around the bat outlined on his chest armor.

"We need to contact John and find out where he went drinking that night," Batman said. "Then we'll go interrogate the bartender who was on duty."

"Oo, I like the sound of that," Shayera said. "I'll bring my mace."

"And wear your Gargoyle mask," Batman said, the corner of his mouth quirking.

"Oh, I'll wear my mask," Shayera said in a huskier voice, trailing her fingers up from Batman's chest to his lips. "And when we get home later, I'll wear just the mask," she whispered in his ear.

"Me, too," Batman smirked.

"Promise?" Shayera winked.


"Vixen, John! Can I sit with you?" Supergirl asked cheerfully as she bounced over to the couple seated in the Watchtower commissary, a full lunch tray in her hands.

"Of course, Kara," Vixen said with a smile. "How are you?"

"Well, I was hoping you could help me with something, Vixen," Kara confessed before taking a large bite of her slice of pizza.

"If I can," Vixen said, eying the pepperoni slice with some longing regret.

John chuckled and reached up a hand to rub her neck.

"I'm sure you could burn that off with one good workout, baby," he said to his girlfriend. "Want me to get you a slice?" he asked.

"Thanks, boo, but no," Vixen sighed. "I've got a swimsuit shoot on Saturday and the dairy and sodium will get me all bloated."

"I'll take you out for pizza Saturday night, then," John said and Vixen's eyes lit up.

Was it just her, or was John being a little more thoughtful lately, Vixen wondered as she leaned in to kiss him. The look in his green eyes when he pulled away was definitely more tender than she was accustomed to, Vixen thought, and she didn't want to read too much into it, but she couldn't quite stop her heart from doing a silly little happy dance in her chest.

"How come you have a swimsuit shoot in October?" Kara asked Vixen curiously after swigging down some soda.

"We shoot for the upcoming season," Vixen said. "Designers have to get the clothes ready long before the weather is right to wear them."

"Oh," said Kara. "Actually, clothes were what I wanted your help with."

"You're speaking her language now," John chuckled as Vixen's smile widened.

"Diana invited me to her wedding on Friday," Kara said, "and I don't know what to wear. And she didn't know either, really, but she thought you could give me some advice."

"Oh, you can really dress up for a wedding!" Vixen said with enthusiasm. "The fancier, the better. Now, this one's at a club -"

"It's like a fancy bar, Diana said," Kara interjected.

"So a short dress would be fabulous," Vixen said with authority. "Something glitzy that will sparkle in the dim lights, easy to dance in but super sexy -"

"Hey, hey, you're talking to a teenager, now," John gently chided her.

Vixen looked slightly abashed but Kara rolled her eyes.

"You sound like Kal," Supergirl said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Take that back!" John said in horror, making both women laugh.

"I don't own anything that fancy," Kara admitted. "My prom dress was long and poufy and that's the most glamorous thing I have. But Diana said she'd buy me a new dress with Lex's money," Kara said, almost floating off of her chair with excitement.

"Would you come with us to shop, Mari?" the teenager pleaded. "I want to look right."

"I'd love to come," Vixen said, genuinely touched to be asked for help.

She glanced at John.

"No snarky comments about using Lex's money?" she lightly teased.

"Baby, use up as much of that bastard's money as you can," John grinned. "Get Kara the most expensive designer dress on the planet, and shoes, too."

"And a purse," Kara added with glee.

"And new undergarments," Vixen nodded authoritatively. "You might need a strapless bra," she said, "depending what dress we find, and bras are so expensive."

"You're telling me," Kara moaned.

John groaned and dramatically covered his ears.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Mari laughed to him.

"Can we join the party?" Black Canary asked, with Green Arrow at her side.

"Sure, sure, have a seat," Mari said, still chuckling slightly at John's antics. "We were just embarrassing John."

"How are you feeling?" Oliver asked him with some concern.

"Back up to par," John said.

"Good," Ollie grunted and Canary nodded.

But the Green Arrow pinned the Green Lantern with a harsh look.

"You shouldn't have gone off after Sinestro by yourself," he said. "We're lucky we didn't lose you."

"I can handle Sinestro," John said with some irritation.

"Apparently not," Oliver said, staring him down.

"Ollie," Dinah murmured under her breath.

"What?" Oliver said. "Backup exists for a reason, GL. You of all people should know that. You had three team members you could have taken with you."

"Who were fighting KGBeast and Evil Star," John said sharply. "Vigilante wasn't a possibility for backup since Sinestro and I were flying, and even as good a shot as Vig is, I wasn't going to leave him to face KGBeast by himself. With KGB's super-strength, Vig probably would have had to take a lethal shot to keep from getting killed himself."

"And need I remind you that Evil Star also flies," John glared at Oliver, "so what, you think I should have put Vigilante's safety on the line instead of my own?"

"I think," Ollie snarked, "that you should have called for backup. Flash could have sent Ice to either follow you or help Vig out and he could have called Wonder Woman's team for help if we started to get crunched being a man down."

"A woman down," Vixen and Dinah mumbled at almost the same moment, before catching each other's eyes and smiling.

"I'm just saying," Oliver went on unperturbed, "that you should practice what you preach, GL. Letting your emotions get in the way of your judgment is a way to get killed, oh fearless leader," he ended somewhat mockingly.

Vixen shot a troubled look at John and was surprised to see that his face had morphed from pissed off to grumpy. The Green Lantern grit his teeth, took a deep breath, and let it out in a long exhale.

"You're right," he admitted.

Vixen's eyebrows shot up and Kara, who had been nervously watching the exchange, looked downright startled at his admission.

"You think Ollie is right?" Supergirl said, her mouth dropping open.

"I know he's right," John said heavily. "I wasn't wrong to leave you and Vig and Fire working together against KGBeast and Evil Star, but I was more than capable of opening my comm channel and asking for backup from Flash or Diana."

"It's personal between me and Sinestro. I wanted to take him myself," John sighed.

"Glad you can admit it," Oliver said. "Next time try not to get yourself killed."

"Speaking of next times, Ollie, don't yell at me again for following my team leader's orders," Supergirl snarked. "You gonna admit that was wrong, too? Or is GL the only one on trial here?" she glowered.

Dinah giggled and Ollie let out a reluctant smile.

"All right, kid, ya got me," he said. "I'm sorry. I was worried about this dumbass over here and I shouldn't have yelled at you about it. We good now?" he asked Kara, who truthfully was a friend and not someone who he wanted to create animosity with.

"We're good after a hug," Kara beamed, jumping out of her chair to run over and throw her arms around Ollie's shoulders from behind.

"Ok, ok, ok," Ollie sighed as he patted her arms under the amused eyes of his friends. "Yes. Good talk. Friendship forever. Rah rah rah," he said dryly to Kara's smiles and squeezes.

"Can we move on to an equally miserable topic?" Dinah asked hesitantly as Kara returned to her seat.

"What would that be?" Vixen asked her curiously, picking up a forkful of plain grilled chicken breast.

"Diana invited me and Ollie to her wedding," Dinah said slowly.

"That's not a miserable topic," Kara argued.

The four adults at the table exchanged glances.

"I guess I mean that I feel miserable about it," Dinah carefully amended with a cautious eye on Supergirl, "because Diana is my friend, but I don't - we don't -" she said to Ollie's firm nod - "necessarily feel right about a League member marrying Lex Luthor. We'd honestly rather not attend, but I feel bad about it, especially since Diana's not inviting that many people."

"If she's your friend, you should go," Kara said with a frown.

"It's complicated, Kara," Vixen said gently. "John and I also don't believe that a Justice League member should be dating or marrying a super-villain. Supposedly reformed or not," she said.

"Are you going to the wedding?" Oliver asked John.

"We are," John sighed. "I said some things I shouldn't have when they first started dating and it caused fissures in the team. I don't feel good about their marriage, but I need to be there for the sake of the Founders' unity," he grumbled.

Oliver grunted.

"I can understand you going, maybe, but we're not Founders," he said.

"But you're still her friends," Kara protested.

"Sometimes being a friend means standing against your friend's bad decisions," Dinah said heavily.

"You don't know that marrying Lex is a bad decision, though!" Kara said. "He saved Kal's life during the raid on the Legion of Doom. And he hasn't done anything wrong since dating Diana."

"And how long has that been?" Oliver said dryly. "Not the world's most impressive track record yet, kid."

"Won't you feel bad if he's really changed and everything's fine for years and years and years afterwards and you didn't go to their wedding?" Kara persisted. "It'll hurt your friendship with Diana forever."

Dinah sighed.

"That's why I'm conflicted," she said guiltily. "But I don't know that showing up is going to do that much to preserve our friendship when she already knows that we don't approve. Do you think Diana really wants two scowling friends there thinking terrible thoughts about her husband the whole time she's exchanging vows with him?"

"Well, that's just mean," Kara said with wounded dismay. "Couldn't you try to be happy for her?"

"How come you're on board with it?" John said. "Given how many times Lex has tried to kill your cousin."

"Grandma and Grandpa say anybody can change," Kara said. "And Clark's not mad at Lex about it. I think it's super romantic," Kara beamed, "that Lex fell in love with Diana so hard that he's giving up villainy."

"If it's true," Vixen said.

"Even if it's not true," Kara said, "wouldn't you still be friends with Diana afterwards? Or are you going to hate her forever for getting tricked and having her heart broken into a million little pieces?"

"It depends on how many people Lex kills in the process of breaking her heart," Oliver muttered, meeting John's agreeing eyes.

"I'd want to still be Diana's friend," John said slowly, "but honestly, Kara? Sacrifices are part of a soldier's life. A true solider," he added with a small scowl. "If our comrades fall due to Wonder Woman's choices? I don't know if I'll be able to forgive her for that or not."

"Oh," Kara said quietly as her face dimmed.

"I'm glad you're going to the wedding," Dinah said gently, reaching out to pat Kara's hand. "I want Diana to feel loved and supported. But we all have to live with our own consciences, too, after the fact."

"Yeah, I guess," Kara mumbled. "Well, um, I'm gonna go back to my training," she said, getting up to clear her tray. "You'll still come dress shopping with me, though, Mari?" she asked slightly anxiously.

"Of course I will," Vixen reassured her. "And it will be fabulous," she said with a smile.

"Ok," Kara said softly. "See you later, guys."

The group said their good-byes as the teenager walked off, her head decidedly lower than it had been when she'd first approached. Dinah sighed.

"Well, now I feel like an even bigger piece of shit," she said. "I just burst her happy little bubble."

"Kid's gotta grow up sometime, babe," Ollie said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "We aren't the Pajama Party League."

"Yeah," Dinah mumbled. "I feel bad, though."

"I feel bad I'm going to the wedding," John said. "You feel bad you're not. Kara feels bad that we feel bad…"

"It's a mess," Vixen agreed, reaching out to thread her fingers through her boyfriend's.

"For what it's worth, I think Diana feels bad, too," Dinah said. "I know she didn't mean to fall in love with the wrong guy."

"Falling in love with the wrong person doesn't mean you have to stay with them," John pointed out in a voice laced with personal experience.

He squeezed Mari's fingers a little tighter.

"It also doesn't mean that you'll never fall in love with the right person," he said.

John didn't look at Mari as he spoke, but that didn't stop her heart from fluttering.


A/N I'm aiming to have the next chapter up in two weeks, but it may be a bit longer. We'll have to see how things go. I'm in the last few chapters of Red Knight which are taking a little longer to write, but once that story wraps up I'm planning to be back to regular bi-weekly updates on Light in the Dark. Until then, I'm aiming for every two weeks and keeping my fingers crossed.

You can follow me on Tumblr as River9Noble.