Disclaimer: I own nada.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Savage is one sick, sick mofo.

Once again, bold type detonates flashback.

When the Green Lantern had finished the first portion of his story, his voice had broken down considerably. Diana clutched her son closer to her- and didn't seem able to say a word, either. Hippolyta arched her long, slender neck, looking at him with new respect.

"It must have been very hard of you to share that with me," Hippolyta said, softly. To their surprise, she didn't look shocked- only tired and very, very sad. "There is great wickedness in the world of men. I tried to keep my daughter sheltered, but..." she shook her head, still speaking about Diana as if she were not in the room. "She is naïve.... she was naïve."

John looked her in the eye, steadily. "She is one of the strongest women I know."

Hippolyta nodded. Then she held out her hands. "May I?"

Surprised, Diana handed over Timeus without comment. The boy regarded Hippolyta gravely for a minute, and then broke into laughter, his face dimpling mischievously. She looked surprised, then laughed in return. His parents watched them quietly.

Hippolyta ran her long, slender fingers through the baby's tight curls, and he reached up to her in response, trapping her fingers in his tiny hands. "Can someone so beautiful come from such a heinous situation? He is blessed by the gods." She looked over his head at them. "Please continue."

John looked at Diana.

She nodded, and began to speak.

The first sound that the Green Lantern heard when he finally came to was the sound of groaning...then he realized it came from himself, from his own throat...which now felt like it was on fire...

He attempted to open his eyes, to move his limbs. But he couldn't. It was as if he was pinned down...

By sheer will, he managed to straighten out his legs, but they felt unusually heavy. He frowned. What the-!

Then his legs hit what felt like...another set of legs. Long. Smooth. Hairless. A woman's undoubtedly, but not Shayera's. They were much too long. And his right...shoulder was feeling awfully heavy, as well...he forced his eyes open, this time.

A head was resting on his shoulder, and his chest was covered with a pool of long, dark hair. What? A body was half-draped over his. Undoubtedly female, for that matter. And undoubtedly...naked, from the feel of it.

What??

John sat up abruptly, dumping the woman haphazardly off of him, onto the floor. In one blurry image, he took in the small room. The twin beds. The bedding, and clothing, some shredded, now scattered about. One of the bedsteads was smashed, as if there had been...a fight of some sort...and speaking of fights, his ribs were killing him.

Then, the events of the previous evening came back with a rush.

John froze, afraid to move, afraid to even breathe. What had happened? His throbbing head wouldn't let him remember...and did he really want to know? Something told him he didn't....

"John?"

He straightened up and looked down, directly into Diana's blue eyes. They looked cloudy, dazed- and just as confused. "John?"

John swallowed and shook his head, trying to clear it. "Diana..." he straightened up completely. "What the hell happened here last night..."

Diana, however, was focused on his ribs. "What..." she reached up and touched his side, the side closest to her, and he looked down. He was completely naked. Dark purplish-black bruises lined his sides and shoulders, and there were scratches on his chest and lower back- some were rather deep, and still covered over with encrusted blood...a disturbing evidence of passion, almost as if they had been made by....

Nails.

A woman's nails.

He backed away from her, quickly covering himself with a large piece of white cotton lying nearby on the floor- a sheet. He wound it around his waist. "Oh, God..." he glanced at Diana, who was sitting up, now, stark naked as well. She had made no move to cover herself, and she still looked slightly dazed. "Diana...Princess."

Did she even understand what had happened...what might have happened?

She was sometimes so naïve about some things...and he knew nothing about her...past relationships. She'd been on an all-female island until last year, for goodness' sake. God forbid he be the first man that she actually had ever...he closed his eyes at the thought, his headache intensifying, fighting nausea.

Please, God, don't let it be true...

But, even as the GL closed his eyes tightly, briefly, he knew that was impossible. He exactly knew what had happened, although he didn't remember a moment of it. The smell in the room was unmistakable. Heavy, sultry musk, sweat, a hint of female, of male scent...it was unmistakable. And it wasn't a strange scent to him.

And from the look of terror slowly dawning in Diana's eyes, it wasn't unusual to her, either. She looked around at him, at the room...

And she screamed.

The GL tensed immediately at the sound of her voice, his training taking over in an instant. He leaped over to her and attempted to cover her mouth with his hand. "Diana- please be quiet! We have to-"

She elbowed him in the ribs, making him fall backwards, painfully. "Don't you touch me!" she hissed, her eyes a wide, bright contrast against her now paper-pale skin. She folded her arms over her chest, protectively. "I'll kill you if you touch me!"

"Diana..." he winced. "Please. We have to find out what happened, and-" was she injured at all? From the distance he was at, he could make out faint bruises on her back and legs, but saw nothing that looked too serious. All modesty forgotten, he stood and attempted to move towards her again. "Diana. Please, let me at least see if you're injured, and-"

"I said, stay away from me!" Diana covered herself as best she could with her hands, struggling to her feet, taking in deep, ragged breaths. The GL could only watch her from a distance. "Princess, breathe!"

She ignored him and headed for the door, struggling with the lock. In one adrenaline-filled motion, she wrested the lock off the door and stumbled out into the hall.

She nearly collided with Vandal.

Vandal was leaning on the wall in the hallway, that ever-present smirk on his face. He took in Diana's dishevelment and state of undress with a single glance. "Slept well, dear?" He chuckled. "Well, actually, you didn't. My potion worked well- too well. I was actually afraid one of you would kill the other at the height of your-"

All the blood drained from John's head in that single instant. "You watched the whole time?" and both nausea and humiliation hit him simultaneously, suddenly, with deadly intensity. He gripped the wall next to him for support.

"Of course," Vandal replied smoothly, as if he was answering to an enquiry about the weather or something equally nonchalant. "And believe me, it was not that enjoyable, but I needed to see the results of my little...experiment. It was actually quite liberating, in a fashion, and..."

"You sick son of a..." the Green Lantern couldn't even complete his sentence. He was still fighting down the bile threatening to rise in his throat.

With a feral scream of rage, Diana leapt at him. "What did you do?"

Even the Green Lantern stepped back, and a look of real fear crossed Savage's face. After Diana's complacency those past weeks, her sudden fury was as terrifying as it was amazing.

Savage snapped his fingers, retreating quickly, and a group of four androids moved in from their places in the hall, two taking Diana's legs, two taking her arms. She twisted abruptly to the right, wrenching out of their grasp, ripping the arms out of two of them, sending sparks dancing across the floor. She reached out and picked up the broken arms, then slammed them into the two remaining androids holding her legs. Now free, she advanced on Savage, but six other robots had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. She made quick work of them, too, looking more and more like her old self as metal exploded around her.

Vandal arched his brows in real surprise, but he acted quickly. He commanded another robot. "Get the man!"

The Green Lantern made a run for it and fought savagely, managing to seriously damage a couple, but without his ring he was no match for the machines- and Diana was busy stalking Vandal. They had him in a grid-iron lock in seconds, tightening their grip around his throat. He began to gag, struggling for air.

"Princess Diana!" Savage called from the safety of the other side of the hall. "Stop assaulting my droids! I have your teammate- and if you don't stop, I will kill him at once."

Diana, who was about to haul one of the droids clean through the wall, paused and turned around, slowly. Vandal was smiling.

"Now, put the robot down."

Diana met Lantern's eyes, and did so, slowly.

"Good girl." He glanced at the droids holding Lantern. "Hold him. Kill him if I give the order." He walked over to Diana, where she was standing amid the remains of his guards, her chest heaving, her face flushed with fury. He gave her a competuous look. "Cover yourself," he sneered, handing her his coat.

She spat in his face.

He didn't even blink. "Suit yourself." He snapped his fingers again, and a droid from his seemingly-endless army appeared once again. "Escort the lady to the room we have prepared for her," he said, coolly. He walked up to Diana, whose defiance hadn't abated in the slightest. "Hold her for a second. I want to talk to her." The androids did so.

Vandal's half-smirk, half-smile appeared on his face once again, this time with the addition of a glint in his eye that made the Green Lantern shiver, in spite of himself. Vandal stepped forward, up to Diana, and laid his right hand on her bare abdomen.

"Please take care of yourself," he said, his near-whisper sounding like a roar in the silence of the hall. "You wouldn't want to harm the child you carry." He grazed the skin with his fingertips, then looked into her eyes- and smiled again.

The Green Lantern knew that the look that covered her face at that moment would haunt him for the rest of his life. She seemed to fold into herself- no, to crumble, in a way. The little color left in her cheeks drained away, and she looked as pale as death. She bowed her head, an in an instant her face was hidden from the GL, shrouded in a curtain of dark hair.

She had never felt so violated before...and in that instant she knew that she would always feel naked...and filthy. For the rest of her life.

"Take her away." Savage ordered.


We have to get out of here.

The Green Lantern sat in the confines of a small room where he'd been put after Diana had been taken away, leaning against the wall, shutting his eyes tightly, resting his head against his knees. We have to get out of here. I have to get her out of here.

In the months that they'd been in Savage's captivity, the Green Lantern had seen the furthest extent of human wickedness possible, at least in his own opinion. He doesn't even see us a human, I think. He shuddered at the memory of their last meeting with Vandal and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. The man is sick. And powerful.

He and Diana had been separated, Diana taken to an undisclosed location somewhere in the building, while he had been locked back into their bedroom. Mercifully, it had at least been cleaned before he'd been placed back there. An escape attempt resulted in a brutal beating that left his right arm dangling and useless, aching profusely.

Vandal had shown up minutes later.

Ignoring the hatred that flashed from the Green Lantern's eyes, he examined the arm and bound it up with ointment and a bandage. "Not broken or sprained, only badly bruised," he commented, free to move around due to the androids that flanked him, watching John carefully. "Take care of yourself, Mr. Stewart. There is a probability that the princess did not conceive, despite my earlier words. I may be in need of your services again."

The Green Lantern stared at him, silently. If he could have killed him at that moment, he would have done it. "Where is Diana?" he asked tightly.

Savage didn't answer him- he merely left the room.

John had hit the wall in frustration, and now he was sitting against the wall, too angry for words. He was so worried about Diana that he felt sick to his stomach. Where was she- and what was Vandal doing to her? And if she was really- he swallowed again, painfully. What kind of child could come from such a union?

That is, if she's even pregnant. After all, I'm still alive, and Vandal mentioned that he might have to...

The Green Lantern shook the thoughts from his head, concentrating instead on making his escape. There had to be a way...

And all of a sudden, he had it.

Why hadn't he tried it before? And it was so simple...would it really work?

He had to try. If anything else, it would get him another beating, at worst. He glanced at the scars on his upper body and smiled, darkly. It wouldn't make that much of a difference if they did. He dressed and waited for the droid.

The droid came, opening the door. The GL's afternoon meal was on a tray he carried- the GL hadn't been allowed out of his room, even for meals- and he held it out.

John moved towards him, advancing slowly, as if he was tired, or still reeling from his injuries. As he moved, he carefully scanned the droid's body. It was rather crudely made, he thought, considering Vandal's other...scientific advancements in the universe. His eyes moved up and down the droid's body, looking for the vent that would lead to all the machinery inside...God, I wish I had listened a little harder at Batman and J'onn's stupid electronics seminar...he located it, and saw a tiny, flashing red light. He held his breath involuntarily as he held out his arms for the tray. Got to time it...just right...

In one smooth, seamless moment, he grabbed the glass of water in his left hand and a steaming bowl of soup in the other, then tossed them both on the vent in quick succession, and then ducked.

The droid went spectacularly, predictably wild. Garbled sounds emitted from its voice box, and it began to spin like a top. The Green Lantern picked up the small nightstand table, hitting the droid repeatedly until it was a pile of mangled, smoking metal. He eyed the door, which was gently swinging open. Freedom at last...

Ducking out into the hall, he made his way down, past the doors that housed the morning workout room and the bathroom, being careful to avoid the security camera's periodic sweeps. The layout of the building was fairly simple, but he knew that wherever Vandal was hiding Diana had to be in a place that the two of them previously had no access to.

He slipped through the hall quickly, as if in a fog, barely taking in the hall that he'd walked so many times. He made his way to Vandal's lab and opened the door, sticking his head in the room, looking around cautiously.

The room was completely empty.

He pushed the door open all the way, almost afraid to do so. Where were the liquids, the vials, the potions? Where were the examining beds? The ever-present droids?

The entire placewas too quiet.

John crept into the room, dumbfounded. "Where is she?" he looked around once more. The place was sterile, and smelled of fresh paint. There was no evidence that there had ever been a lab- Vandal had covered his tracks well. Maybe I should have followed the android instead of killing him.

Hesitantly, not knowing what else to do, he touched the walls one by one, pushing on bricks and panels. This is stupid. This only works in movies and dumb TV kids' spy shows...

The wall gave way, suddenly, and he fell forward, startled.

Well, this entire experience has been pretty surreal...and it is Vandal's funhouse... he thought in a mode of dark humor. He moved forward, cautiously.

The now-open panel led into a small, cramped, dark passageway, totally dark. It smelled fairly musty, and he heard scrabbling sounds that he was pretty sure didn't come from him. Rats. Wonderful. Even in custom-made timelines, the nasty little things existed.

The Green Lantern kept moving, his wide shoulders barely fitting through the narrow passage. He took a deep breath, squeezed through- and just when he thought he couldn't move any further, saw a light. He bent and reached for it-

Then he tumbled forward as the passage suddenly widened..

For an instant, the GL didn't know whether he was on his head or his heels. He tumbled forward, gained momentum as he slid and finally, struck something hard. He groaned, rolled over, sat up, and opened his eyes.

The sight before him made him draw in his breath.

Diana was laying almost directly at his eye level, flat on her back, on a hospital bed, a cotton sheet pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were closed, but from the rise and fall of her chest, he could tell that she was still alive, at least. He crept forward, afraid to touch her. "Di?"

Wires and tubes were connected to her head, some to her neck, some nestled in the depths of her hair. He glanced at a monitor to her right- her heartbeat, it looked like. It was steady, consistent. Wires connected to various other pieces of machinery disappeared underneath the bedsheet, and she had an IV needle in her arm, staining the skin with a large, blue bruise.

He swallowed and looked around. The large room was empty, save for Diana and her bed- and what looked like a medical cabinet under the bed.

"Diana?" he spoke directly into her ear, then gingerly touched her cheek, avoiding the wires.

Her eyelids fluttered, and her heart rate increased slightly,

Encouraged, he leaned forward. "Princess. Wake up. Please. We're going to get out of here. Now."

Diana's eyelids fluttered again; then she opened her eyes. For a moment, the blue eyes looked hazy and out of focus; then she blinked, almost like a child would, and opened her eyes. They widened slightly at the sight of him. "Whaa-"

"Di," without thinking, John shortened her name. He grasped the sides of her face, looked into her eyes. "Diana. Listen to me. We have to get out of here. Is there a way out, and what are you connected to?"

"Go 'way," Diana mumbled, looking slightly frightened, and more than a little sleepy. She pushed him, weakly.

"No, no no no no no..." the GL shook her, gently. "You can't do this to me, Princess. Not now. Come on, we've got to get you out of here- what are you attatched to?"

Wonder Woman looked into his eyes and patted his cheek. "'S okay," she tried to reassure him.

"No, it's not," muttered the Green Lantern. "Oh God, oh God..." he looked frantically around the room. "Come on, Diana." He knelt, spotting a cabinet under the bed, opening it and rummaging through the contents. "Saline, water, morphine, adrenaline-" he held up the small bottle and regarded it for a second.

Do or die. It's not like we could get into any more problems than we have already....

Even so, he sent up a silent prayer, straightening up.

Please let this work. He uncovered her arm, yanked out the IV needle, wiped it off on his pants, and slipped it into the syringe screwed to the top of the bottle. Diana was watching him with bleary eyes.

"Lay down, Di." He quickly held her down with one hand, yanking her hospital-style gown down to her waist with the other. "Sorry."

"That's notsa good idée..." Diana protested drowsily, her head lolling back. She closed her eyes again.

"Mmhmm." The GL bit his lip, trying to ignore the sweat beading his forehead. Please God, don't let me kill her...he plunged the needle into her chest.

The effect would have been comical, had the situation not been so serious. Diana's eyes flew open and she sat straight up. "What-!" she glanced over, saw the GL, and hit him with all her strength, sending him flying across the room while she pulled her clothing back up around her shoulders.

"Diana- no!" John managed to regain his balance, stumbling back over.

"I'm not going to let it happen again!" she took another swing at him, and he ducked. "Stay away from me!"

John saw his chance, then leaped onto her, straddling her and holding her down as best he could, knowing that he was no match for pure Amazon strength. Luckily, she was still fairly weak. "Diana- listen to me!" he yelled as they struggled. "We're not under the influence of any drugs. I busted out of there, okay? We're going to escape. And you're coming with me. By God, you are, if I have to drag you every step of the way!"

When his speech was met by a slap, he shook her, frustrated. "Damn it, Diana!" he took her face in her hands, forcing her to look up at him. "You've got to trust me! Please!"

His last plea seemed to have some effect on her, because the crazed look left her eyes, and she began to breathe, heavily, holding tightly to the sides of her bed. When John realized that she had stopped hitting him, he slid off of her and to the side. "Breathe, Diana. Breathe," he admonished, worried that her outburst might react with the adrenaline in a negative manner. Her heart rate, he noted, was going off the charts.

Diana too in one last, shaky breath, before looking down and lowering her gown. A needle was still sticking out from the middle of her chest. She looked at it, then pulled it out. "What-?"

"Adrenaline," the GL answered, averting his eyes. "You were...not responding to me."

"He had me on a sedative." Diana dropped the needle on the ground and covered herself again, securing the ends of the cotton garment behind her neck. "I...tried to fight him at first."

John nodded and pulled the sheet down, taking in the wires connected to her arms and legs. "Do you know what these are?" he asked urgently.

Diana looked down. Then she began to pull out the wires, one by one.

"Are you sure-"

"It's okay. They are vitamins. Supplements. Help me." The two of them made quick work of the wires, and Diana was soon free. The GL lifted her gently from the bed to the floor, and as soon as her feet touched ground, she swayed slightly, clutching his arm. "I feel so..." without words, she began to cry.

John hurridly wiped her face. "Di. I'm sorry, and I know you've been through a lot, but right now we need to get the hell out of here, and-"

She nodded and pulled herself together, shuddering slightly.

"Do you know...how we can get out?"

It took her a bit of an effort to nod. "I think so. There is a passage that leads...outside..."

He nodded back. "Good. Any idea where Vandal and his droids are?"

She shook her head.

"That's funny- I thought he'd keep this place on lock." The GL looked around again. "One last thing." His eyes dropped down to his right thigh, and Diana instantly understood what he meant. "Your implant."

"Yes. I have no idea what it would mean if I escaped and Vandal decided to-"

"He took mine out." Diana lifted her gown just enough for him to see a fresh set of stitches, covered by tape and a gauze pad. "I think that he thought it would be a risk if I became..." she couldn't finish the sentence.

John ignored the implications of her words. "Did you see him while he was doing it?"

She nodded. "Yes, I was awake."

Without a word, the Green Lantern climbed up on the bed himself, and ripped the right leg of the cotton trousers he wore clear up to the thigh. "There are some scalpels in the lower cabinet, under your bed," he said through gritted teeth.

Diana's mouth fell open. "You can't be serious."

"I'm getting out of here today, Diana." He took her hands and looked into her eyes. "You saw him do it. You know how to take it out without...activating it."

Diana looked as if she wanted to protest, but she knelt and took the scalpels from under the bed. "It will be very painful. I have nothing to give you for the pain...and what if it bleeds too much?"

"I'm as good as dead either way," the GL said, impatiently. "Besides, I trust you. Do it!" he gripped the sides of the bed, mentally counting the minutes that had gone by. The longer they took, the more time Vandal would have to realize that they were...missing.

Diana bit her lip. For a moment, she didn't look like she was going to do it. But in a moment, she straightened her shoulders. Leaning down, she ripped a piece of cloth off the bedsheet and forced it into his mouth. "Bite down on this," she instructed. "It'll help with the pain. And whatever you do, don't move."

She regarded the now-light, thin scar on the muscular thigh on the bed, and took a deep breath.

"Do it," the GL said again. Then he closed his eyes.

Diana did her best, and tried to do her job as quickly as humanely possible. But by the time she had cut down through the layers of scar tissue, skin and one thin layer of muscle, found the implant, slipped her fingers into the open gash, cut the wires connecting it to the muscle under his skin, and pulled it out, her hands and forearms were slippery with blood, and the bed around the GL's leg was soaked. To his credit, he did not cry out once during the entire procedure, though sweat was pouring down his body at an alarming rate. Diana tossed the implant on the floor.

"Close it up," he hissed, too in pain to even see clearly.

Diana wiped her hands off on her sides, stuffed the wound with cotton dipped in the alcohol she found under the bed, and wrapped the entire wound tightly with the end of the bedsheet. "Are you all right?" she asked, regarding her now-groaning teammate.

"I've felt better," he said through gritted teeth. "Help me up, willya?" with her assistance, he struggled to his feet, then groaned again as his right leg buckled beneath him. "God." He cursed. "I feel as if it's been run over with a truck. No strength whatsoever..." he slumped against Diana, then took in her blood-smeared clothing and skin. His blood. He smiled, a sickly smile. "We look like we just stepped out of a horror movie," he joked.

Diana smiled, albeit a bit warily. "Can you...walk?"

"Do I have a choice?" the GL grimaced and began to walk, then nearly fell as Diana suddenly released him, a spark entering her eyes. "What?"

She turned and ran to a space on the wall, and began banging on it. "I know it's here..."

"Diana?" Has she flipped her lid? "We have to go!"

Diana kept hitting the walls.

The GL moved towards her. "What-"

The wall in front of her swung open, to his surprise, and Diana crawled in, then backed out, a triumphant look on her face. In her hands she held what looked like a large flashlight, her lasso, and...

"My ring!" forgetting his leg, the GL sprang forward, taking the precious piece of jewelry from Diana. He slid it on his finger, watching it glow. "How did you..."

Diana smiled, the first smile he'd seen on her face in six months. "I saw him...putting them there. This morning. I knew I didn't dream it!"

"It's working!" he glanced at the flashlight in her hand, while enjoying the strength running through his veins, straightning to his full height as the pain in his leg began to abate. Thanks to the ring, his leg was beginning to heal, already. "You have your lasso back, too. But what is-?"

"Oh," Diana. She held it up. "Some kind of charger."

The GL moved quickly to her side and took it from her. "It's...it's for the ring." The charger was a perfect replica of his power battery, only very, very crudely made. "But this is impossible!" he turned it over in his hand. "It cant power the ring unless it's from the Guardians..."

"Just take it along," Diana said, impatiently. "We don't have time."

The Green Lantern nodded, and closed his eyes. The ring flickered, and he frowned. "I can't get a uniform out of this- but I'll try that later." He tucked the battery under his arm. "Let's go!" he gingerly made a couple of beams, testing the ring. Diana tucked her lasso to her side. "The exit is this way," she said, pushing on another wall. It instantly opened, and...they found themselves outside, in a yard, facing a huge barbed-wire fence.

Vandal stood there, surrounded by his droids.

And he smirked.

Had to end this here; was getting too long...more soon...please review! More on Di and John as well as the Bat and Shay to come....