7.1: But Strong In Will…

The gas, it didn't stop there. Her section may have been sealed but the antechamber was still exposed, open to the air coursing through the building. The air, and now the gas. She could see its coloured hue beginning to wind its way into the room, like winding roots spreading deep into the soil, entrenching itself in every corner it could reach. Soon, the whole antechamber was being tinted in its horror.

And stood right in the middle of it all, the Pyg was practically dancing in it. Arms stretched out wide, head thrown back, a malevolent smile on his twisted face. His whole body coursed as if the gas was his very lifeblood. He revelled in it, swayed as the gas flowed, in his element.

And completely unaffected by it. Because his own love for that moment was shining through, plain as day.

But before Lois could even contemplate that being a beacon of hope for everyone else confined in the walls of the hospital, Pyg snatched away her chance for it.

"Perfection…!" Pyg exhaled to the heavens in almost orgasmic jubilation, smile broad, fists clenching in front of him as if to literally grab hold of the moment. Of the gas. "This is perfection! Ms. Lane, don't you see! Soon they will all be perfect! Or one step nearer at least. Even as we speak these people are being freed from the shackles of love! They will be unburdened, unlocked. They will be better. Because of me! They will be more like me. I have already perfected my own mind, Ms Lane. I am immune to the gas as there is nothing to fix. I have already seen to that. But these people… These people out here. I have saved them. I have taken them towards perfection. And all they had to do was breathe!"

It was almost sickening. In fact, Lois felt the churning sensations deep in her gut. But luckily, her mind stayed sharp, her own determination unwavering.

"No… No. If this gas doesn't affect you, then that means its not infallible. It implies it can be overcome. They'll find a way to stop it. They'll find a way to stop you. You're a sociopath Valentin. They won't let you get away this. They'll undo everything you've done!"

"But that is where you are dead wrong!" Pyg's joyfulness was gone in an instant, as if his own emotions were at the control of a switch. Rather than a gas… Now he was pure rage again. And now, he was stepping back over towards those monitors. Clearly, he wanted her to see. To see the same CCTV feed he had just shown her moments ago. And to see the change in all those people… "Take a look Ms Lane. Take a long, hard look. At all of them. At their inability to escape. And at their inability to stop the change. Take a look at their lovelessness!"

But Lois didn't want to look. She could picture it already. She didn't want to have to see it too, not to make the fears real. Not until she could come up with something, anything to give the situation hope again. But still, even keeping her eyes locked on Pyg, she saw enough out of her eye corners to know her mind had been right in how it filled in the blanks.

The gas had indeed spread everywhere, its coloured hue apparent on all the feeds. And behind it, all the people where still in place. Some had clearly tried to get away from it only to not make it very far. Others, due to the situations in this place, had had no chance to begin with. They had all breathed it in. They were all infected.

And its effects were already in action. The love gone. And with it, the compassion, the care.

Doctor's suddenly devoid of the drive to treat patients, now left frozen and lethargic and uncaring.

Patients abandoned in the cubicles…

Lacking the empathy, arguments already beginning out of selfish need for treatment, regardless of urgency…

Fights starting to break out in reception.

People starting to code in the emergency room, in the middle of surgery, as Doctor's stood uselessly by…

People starting to die. Because of Pyg. Because of his insanity!

"Look at them, Ms Lane!" Pyg bellowed at her again. "Look at what they are becoming! Look at their lack of love! What I have done to them, it has most definitely worked. There is nothing anyone can do to stop this! I have already succeeded!"

"Look at them yourself!" Lois couldn't help it. The words were barking out of her due to her horror, her fear. "Look what you've done! They're dying out there! They're…"

"Unguided!" Pyg quickly cut across her. "It doesn't have to be this way for beings so perfected. My Dolls already prove this. Yes, without me, without my leadership and guidance and command to replace their love, then these souls will only give in to their anger, to their hate and their fear and their greed. Their other base emotions, their other great motivators, those will take over. And those feelings will make them destroy themselves. This entire hospital will turn to riot. One that I could stop if I went out there.

"But I will not. I will not, Ms Lane! I will not take this away. Because the riot will be the proof! It will be the final proof that these people are free of their love. It will show the world that I, Professor Pyg, can free them! That I can lead them to perfection! And it will be the cleansing act I need to remove these test subjects, and allow me to move on to the next."

That churning sensation in her stomach was a definite now. Pyg wasn't satisfied with just what he'd done. He wasn't satisfied with just the thought of doing it to many others too. Now he wanted to kill all those people as well… To make them kill each other…

"You're a monster…" Lois breathed. "This isn't perfection… This is insanity!"

"No, Ms. Lane, this is progress!" Pyg snarled ferociously back. "Progress only the blind wouldn't see! And blindness is an imperfection that must be stamped out. I grow tired of your distractions too. Now, time is with us as we await the final stages of the gases progress. Time for your feeble flight to end. But don't worry, Ms Lane. I have no desire for you to become another of my test subjects any more."

He broke off for a second, turned behind him to the broken, still sparking screen he'd already destroyed. To the cleaver still embedded within it. The cleaver he pulled clear and into his grasp. The weapon he'd been threatening her with all along. And, as he turned back to face her, the weapon he most definitely was threatening her with again.

"That glass screen has protected you til now, Lois. But how long before you think it will break?"

With that, words were done. With that, Pyg advanced with all his weight and ferocity. Just as before, all Lois could do was step back, as if it would actually help her.

It seemed nothing could now. Not as, with a howl of effort and rage, Pyg began to unleash all his might against the glass, slamming the cleaver down into it. Again, and again, and again.

Glass that, before Lois' eyes, was finally starting to crack…

The hospital wasn't far from his lair. László Valentin, the Pyg, he would never base himself too far from the opportunity he would have seen. Not with his apparent insatiable desire for more. To ruin more innocent lives in his mad quest for betterment… But at least it meant that, once again, her flight through the skies didn't take too long.

Yet as even before she began to descend from the heights of the air, Wonder Woman could see the commotion that lay ahead of her. The flashing blue lights, the sires of the gathered emergency vehicles. The crowds, gathered around the firm cordon that had been established. The empty space between it and the hospital where no-one dared enter. Even from up there, she could sense the panic in those people. As she got closer, as she could see more, the feeling only got stronger.

This wasn't good. She could guess, but she had to find out what had happened. And then she had to stop it.

Picking them out as soon as she was close enough, Wonder Woman chose carefully where to land. She made sure they saw her coming too. There were plenty of police around the scene, all manner of vehicles and personnel and equipment and barricades. Most of the officer were decked out in full riot gear, those closest to the building keeping the civilians at bay even wearing gas masks. Some were even armed. But the one that Wonder Woman aimed for was towards the rear, stood with fellow officers around the bonnet of an armed response van, pointing away at what appeared to be the map of the hospital spread out atop it. This seemed to be the man that was in charge of the scene. He'd therefore be the one with the most answers, and the one who could most help her.

As she drew near, it was the other officer was the one to see her. Almost unable to believe his eyes, he merely slapped his commander on the shoulder, distracting him from the map he was engrossed in to point behind him and make him look up. When he did, Wonder Woman found herself face to face with an officious pair of eyes. They didn't seem overly pleasant, but at least she also immediately read they were moral. It gave her no reason not to trust him.

"Officer, what is happening here? How can I help?" she immediately spoke to him even as she hovered the final centimetres down to the ground just before him. When she had finally stopped, she set down the tanks of anaesthetic she had carried all the way from the makeshift surgery, still with the gut feel that she had been right to bring them. At first the officer gave them a confused glance, an oddity to bring to the scene without knowing what Diana knew. Then he took a moment to look her up and down before answering, as if he too could hardly believe he was seeing her there.

"Wonder Woman… I'd heard you were in the area. Fazio Marsiglia, Vice Questore aggiunto. Since you're here… A chemical agent was released inside the hospital in the last minutes. We haven't yet been able to ascertain what it is, nor has anyone come forward with any demands or to claim responsibility. Until we know what we're dealing with, we're keeping a clear radius from the building, no one in or out. If this is a terrorist incident, we aren't risking contagion. We've got a lot of concerned people out here to hold back, but so far, none of those inside have tried to get out. Instead they seem intent on tearing each other apart. Whatever this agent is, its driving them crazy in there."

A chemical agent… Wonder Woman quickly looked up. She couldn't see much inside, but the entrance to the building was lit up ahead of her. The doors had been sealed, but the glass panelling meant she could still see inside. She could see the gas that seemed to linger all through the air in there. And she could see the people, those in the reception area.

And then she could really understand the sense of fear in the area. For as Marsiglia had said, those people in there were tearing each apart. Pandemonium, it was like a full riot had broken out in there. Barbaric assaults on one another. They were killing each other… Or at least they would be soon, if no one stopped this.

But she also understood more than that, more than anyone else standing there beside her could know. She knew who was behind this. She knew what this was. This was the Pyg. And that gas, that was his weapon. His means of destroying love.

But Wonder Woman had already discovered that whatever Pyg had done, it couldn't dispel the truth of the heart.

And it couldn't be allowed to go unchecked. Not when she had seen first-hand exactly what the infected would otherwise be willing to do…

"We can't wait," Wonder Woman firmly stated, turning back to the officer. "Those people in there, the patients that need care. We delay, they suffer."

"I'm not sending my guys in there to be infected too!" Marsiglia didn't delay in snapping back at her. It didn't matter that she was a superhero with the strength to crush him like a bug, he was right up in her face to shout it. Passion strong, Wonder Woman could at least respect his desire to protect his own, even if she saw t as a dereliction of duty. "Not until we get the go ahead that we can enter safely! Not with what we're seeing!"

"Maybe not," Diana stared him down. As she did so, she was already pulling the lasso of truth from her hip once more, only this time it wasn't intended for anyone else. Instead, she was wrapping it tight around her own forearm. It was her lifeline. It would be her gasmask. She was going in. "But I'm not one of your officers."

Now Marsiglia was looking at her in an entirely new way. Now he was looking at her like she was crazy. But, at least, he also no longer looked like he was resistant.

"If you're fool enough to go in there with what this stuff is doing to people…" he uttered to himself. "If you can assure me this chemical agent is going to drive you crazy… We can't have a psychotic superhero ripping through the town. If you can assure me, then you can be our guest. We've got the front doors on lockdown. We can open them up just enough for you to get inside, but we'll be sealing them up tight again the moment you're through. If you can assure me."

Wonder Woman's first response was to make sure the lasso was bound tight against her skin. The second was to lift those anaesthetic tanks all over again - she hadn't lugged them there for nothing. Then she simply nodded at Marsiglia.

"You can be assured," she said with every ounce of confidence she had in her body. "I've faced this before. I know how to beat it. Just be ready for when I signal that the hospital is clear. Once I can take care of the gas, there's going to be a lot of sick and injured people inside needing urgent care. Don't keeping them waiting longer than we have to."

Now it was Marsiglia's turn to offer but a simple nod. And only now did his look start to turn to amazement at what she was doing. But Wonder Woman barely even took it in. For with that, she was already on her way.

What was happening, their fear for the people inside… Despite the awe of seeing a superhero flying into action, most of the crowds had hardly noticed her arrive behind their backs. The crowds of relatives and staff and onlookers and all those scared people fearing for those inside. Now, stepping forward, stepping out from the crowds; now they all saw. Now, all eyes began to turn to Diana. Now, a sudden hush fell among them all, a baited breath. They were still scared, but now they had more, all because they could see her.

Now they had an unbelievable hope.

And Wonder Woman had to make sure she was worthy of that hope.

She didn't look back. She didn't glance at any of them, didn't take in any of the imploring looks, any of the reactions. She just kept stepping forward, towards that doorway. But her steps were unrushed. Time was limited, but she had to take what she had. She had to be in control. She had to master her mind, her emotions. With what lay waiting inside, everything depended on her remembering her ability to love.

Hence the lasso wound tight around her arm. Truth had saved Amara and the others. Truth would save her too, as she stepped into the void, the abyss. It the fog of the gas of the madman that lay beyond that door. The truth of her heart would save her, it would be her gas mask. And it would give her the strength she needed to save these people. She didn't need to implore Hera for it this time. This time, her strength came from within.

From her mother, her queen. Her sisters. The island. The gods. The art. The culture. The Amazon way of life.

From her new life in Man's World. Its people, and their emerging, inner goodness. The collective innocents. The children and the young. The elderly who had earned their years. The good people. People like Walif. Like Amara. People worthy of compassion.

From her friends. Her comrades in arms. Her allies. The people she had stood shoulder to shoulder with in the face of terrible dangers. The people with whom she had learned and grown. With whom she had laughed and cried. Who had formed her new family since leaving her home. Wally. J'onn. Shayera. Oliver. Dinah. Michael. Dick. Tim. Barbara. Alfred.

Lois. Clark.

And Bruce. Always Bruce.

From that first day, meeting by the snow-covered trees. Especially from the moment she first saw his true character as he risked personal sacrifice for his ingenuity, finding a way when the only path looked dark. From Gorilla City, his anguish when he thought she was gone, and his sheepishness when he knew she'd seen it. From the adventure on New Genesis to the dance floors of Paris, the palace of Kasnia to being hunted by Thanagarian soldiers. From pigs to kids to trips through time. From implacable foes to unbeatable odds to heartbroken tragedies. From moments of brevity and joy and wonders to moments of pure emotion and truth and companionship and courage.

From the invading aliens of another dimension, intent to destroy the world just to kill her. From the moment Bruce took it all on alone, crossing between entire universes and fighting an army on his own to save her. From the moment afterwards when, both battered and bruised and broken, they had both been forced to face their true feelings for each other.

From the return of the Imperium invaders and the Martian race they'd eradicated, all in the form of a cerebral energy cloud with the power to not only devastate the physical plane but to strip a consciousness from a body to within its boundaries. The moment where they had been forced to join minds to find the cloud, the moment they had seen each other's memories and experiences. When she had felt his pain, his burdens, but also got to finally fully understand his love. And the moment when, fighting to bring an entire race back from the brink of extinction and save all of Metropolis, they had taken control of the cloud as they embraced in a kiss. The kiss seen around the world…

From the murder of Audrey in Kasnia… From the Bertinelli's attempt to regain control of their crime empire… The Thanagarians. Vandall Savage. Circe. Ovada Kaah. The Imperium. Niedem. The Joker. Clayface. The Mad Hatter. Scarecrow. The Penguin. Harley Quinn. Kite Man. Calendar Man. Livewire. Luthor. Darkseid. Brainiac. All manner of villains. All manner of horrors unleashed. All manner of darkness faced.

Yet through it all, she had fought to retain her soul. They had fought to retain who they were. Their goodness. Their heart. Their compassion. Their empathy.

Their love. The love she couldn't forget. The love that was stronger than anything. The love that was her greatest truth.

The love for every living thing. The love for her people. The love for these people. The love for her friends.

The love for Bruce.

It was just like she had realised back in that camp, what now felt so very long ago. Love was the key.

Barely even registering it, it was only then that Wonder Woman noticed she had just reached the sealed doorway into the hospital. Now, closer in, she could see even more of the chaos behind the glass. The riots within the gas. The fight among the people in there, the coldness, the heartlessness. She had to stop it, but she had her plan. Hefting the anaesthetic canisters in her grip, she definitely had a plan. For as long as truth and love prevailed.

Standing there, she took a deep, steadying breath, trying to fight the paranoia and fear in the pit of her stomach. Trying to destroy the nagging doubt that not even the lasso, not even the strength of her heart would guide her to overcoming the gas and what the Pyg had done. Then, defiantly, remembering Bruce all the more, she finally glanced back to Marsiglia all over again. Once again, the only signal required was the nod.

Then, things started to happen fast. Then, the door opened up, for a moment as fleeting as Marsiglia had implied. But a moment enough for Wonder Woman to step inside.

For her to step into the chaos. Into the gas. Already it was burning into her lungs, yet the lasso burned brighter around her arm. She could feel the battle already starting to rage in her head, the forces of heartlessness against the power of truth, but while it stang, she pressed on regardless. She had to. She had to get deep inside.

And towards whatever else she would find beyond.

The crack grew. The sound of the glass starting to shatter was eruptive, louder even than the slam of the metal against the pane. Any second now, he was going to break through. And when he did…

She needed something, some way to defend herself. And, out of her eye corner, she spotted it. The way out she'd only find in a hospital. Out of her other eye corner, she saw the shine of the metal cleaver flying in again. It meant she couldn't wait, couldn't think this through. She could only leap across to grab for what she'd seen.

Thankfully, the clang of the reverberating glass sounded again. Once again, the whole thing shook, the cracks now filling virtually the entire area, but it didn't cave in yet. Not even a little, even the gas held at bay. It meant she had time to throw up the dial, to jam in the button. To hear the squeal of power surging into it. A power now in her hands as she gripped both devices in the air.

Her heart was pounding, the air rippling around her. Her hands were shaking but she held on tight. But as she span back towards that pane, it was only for things to get even worse.

It was in time to see the Pyg swinging his cleaver all over again, his entire body weight thrusting through the strike. A strike that dealt the final blow against the glass's resistance.

With a deafening smash, the entire wall of glass caved into a hundred thousand pieces. Some went flying, causing her to momentarily have shield her eyes; others crashed straight to the floor. His momentum meant Pyg kept flying after the shards, flung heavyset arm – cleaver too, practically slicing into the. Several off balance, heavy footsteps into the patient's room followed too, crunching down into the glass to leave him deck barely a pace away from where she stood. But the next moment, his head was raising from the depths, body twisting to face her, maniacal grin beaming out from beneath the mask. His feelings were clear. The time had come for the kill, and it brought joy to his heartless heart.

"Heeeeere's Pyggy!"

She could have hesitated. She could have frozen. She could have given him the chance to raise that cleaver from the depths all over again, driven by the fear of him doing exactly that. But she didn't.

Because in that moment, Lois rammed both fully charged defibrillator paddles right into either side of Pyg's grotesque face.

The current surged out of the paddles and into his body, straight through his brain. The surge of energy was like being hit by a truck. Even all his weight couldn't pin Pyg down. He was sent flying across the room, straight back through the hole he'd smashed through the glass. Straight back through the air. Straight back to those screens. Straight into them. This time it was his head smashing through the glass. This time, all new sparks were flying round his eyes. All new energy coursing through his body.

By the time Pyg slid out of the screen and was collapsing to the floor, his entire head was smoking. His head burnt badly, the mask sizzling as if burnt to his head.

And there he lay, twitching. Unconscious. Defeated. His cleaver left harmlessly clattered across the floor.

Lois should have felt relieved. She should have been able to celebrate. But suddenly, she couldn't feel anything of the sort. Because Pyg hadn't been the only thing to break through that glass.

The gas was all around her. There was no escaping it. The adrenaline of the action. It meant that, even with an intention to hold her breath, she simply couldn't. She couldn't avoid exactly the same fate that was befalling everyone in this building.

It was already hitting her strong. Her breath had become heavy, deep as she tried to hang onto her mind. It was like that room downstairs all over again. Less intense without the electrical stimuli, but her mind felt the same. Clark… Clark was slipping away…

No… No, not yet… Not while she could help. She was slipping away. She couldn't resist the gas. Or at least, she couldn't for long. But for as long as she could, she had to…

For she'd spotted something else fallen on the floor, left abandoned after Pyg's flight across the room. The smartphone he'd used to unleash the gas was right there in front of her. Maybe, just maybe, she could use it to stop this.

Finally able to move again, Lois snatched forward, grabbing the device from amongst the shattered glass. But as she did, she saw the bad news. Its screen was locked.

"No!" Lois yelled at the inanimate object. "No no no no no no no!"

She desperately turned it in her hand, looking for something, for any kind of hope. So obsessed, she almost jumped as the whole thing buzzed in her hand. It took her a moment to realise it was because she'd caught the pad on the back of the device. The fingerprint scanner…

Lois almost let out a squeal of joy at the sight of it, looking up to Pyg's still twitching fingers. Barely raising from her hands and knees, Lois scrambled through the glass towards his fallen form. Moments ago she would have done anything to avoid those hands. Now she was desperately grabbing onto them, pulling one of those podgy fingers forward. Her own hands were shaking so much she had to jab at that finger print scanner several times before the vibration of failure was replaced by the light of success.

This time, the squeal was unstoppable as she saw the phone unlock. Pyg's hand dropped limply from Lois' grasp as soon as she didn't need it anymore. She rose, turning away from him, both to get away from his repulsiveness and because she simply didn't need to be on the floor any more. Instead, she began tapping at the device, the device now showing her the Pyg's canisters. The means he'd used to unleash horror on this hospital.

And to show Lois that, from here, it was already too late. Desperately she was pressing at every button she could find, but it was futile. The gas was out, and there wasn't just no way to put back in its box, there was no way to stop the unleashing of the canisters. There was nothing Lois could do.

Her yell was now one of despair. Distraught was too timid a word. Fearing everything was already lost, Lois hurled the phone away in desolation. The next moment, her head was in her hands. And all the while, she could feel Clark slipping further and further away…

It was as her hands finally dropped away, as she could feel her heart eroding, that she saw something else in her eye corners. One of the screens hadn't been smashed by the Pyg. It was still showing what was happening in the hospital below. But that wasn't what really caught Lois' eye. No, that was who she had seen in the building.

Diana. Wonder Woman. She was here. She was here. Lois' one hope of ending this. She was here, with some tanks of her own carried under her arms. Wonder Woman was here to save the day.

To…save…

Clark was gone. Lois' heart was gone. Her compassion… Her empathy… Her…resistance…

And something else was replacing it. Unbridled. No longer did the love in her heart keep it at bay. It was safe to say she had hated what the Pyg was from the moment she first became aware of it. More so once she came face to face with him. But it was a hate that she could control, a hate her compassion made her want to defeat, to destroy. But to kill.

But now…

Now the Pyg was left unconscious and broken at her feet. Left completely at her mercy.

And the cleaver, the deadly blade that had already been swung so often, was just a couple of metres away. A distance that was soon closed.

Then, mercilessly, Lois bent to pick it up. The feel of the steel now clutched in her hand, it was cold. Just as her heart was cold.

Cold, like the best served revenge.

And there, still at her feet, Lois looked down at the smouldering face of the Pyg, the blade of the cleaver hovering at her side.

Just waiting for that final swing…