For her Chapter 3, a nightwing fanfic

I would just like to say… I don't know much about Wonder Woman. I researched as much as I could and came up with this. Most of this is actually based on the limited knowledge I have of Amazons in Greek mythology, so it's possible I'm going to be way off base on this one. I apologize in advance.

After proof reading it, I get the impression that the description of the fight gets really complicated and technical. I'm using terms from books I read about fighting, but I don't know if that helps or hurts the story. Again, criticism, help and advice are highly appreciated.

"She's not Donna," he thinks. "She looks like her, acts like her… she might even fight like her. She's not Donna."

Diana is many things. She's the princess and ambassador of the soon to be acknowledged nation of Themyscira. She's the co-leader and field commander of the JLA. She's an Amazon warrior with gifts from gods and immortals. To Nightwing however, she's a remembrance of someone greater.

"She is so much like her," he thinks. They have the same will. They have the same strength. Nightwing has to keep reminding himself… "she's not her."

Fighting Superman was difficult in and of itself. Superman had a large claim to raising the circus acrobat that became a hero. He helped Nightwing greatly when he made the transition from Robin to Nightwing. In fact, his namesake was adopted from a legend that Superman admires. He knew that one of the main reasons Bruce and Clark got along together so well was partially because of the influence Dick had on Bruce to lighten up. Fighting him was more difficult than he'd ever considered. Nightwing literally had to convince himself that nothing can harm Superman to do what had to be done. Every hit from the Escrima stick and every trick he played, Nightwing replaced those thoughts and emotions he had for Clark with Superman. In turn, everything he did to Superman was not done by Dick Grayson, but by Nightwing.

This is so much harder for him. Diana and Wonder Woman are the same person. Donna and Troia were the same person. Where Donna was concerned, Dick and Nightwing were the same person. And he has to convince himself, "she's not Donna."

"This must end now Nightwing. I don't know what would possess you to do this, but-"

Nightwing pulls out two pills out of his left buckler and presents them to her.
"What is that?"

"Essence of Seraphin. It'll make you sleep." Diana's reaction is obviously shock at this. "I don't want to fight you Diana. Everything that you are… I can't just…"

Donna isn't a fool. She knows full well that Nightwing and her soul sister were close. Diana sees an opportunity to end this through negotiation. "Nightwing, I'm sure we can talk about this. Tell me what this is about."

"No, Diana. You don't understand. Take the pills. Please. I can promise you I'll make this right."

In an instant, Diana was able to fly in and take the two pills and fly in the sky behind him. Nightwing turned around to see her floating above him. She waits to make sure he's watching. She turns her hand and lets the pills fall below her. "You can't win Dick."

Nightwing winces. He knew it was unlikely for her to take the pills, he just insistently wished her to. He slowly pulls the Escrima stick from his thigh and extends it to a quarterstaff. " 'So it is said that if you know others and know yourself you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and loose one; if you-'"

"'-do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle'. Sun Tsu."

Nightwing cracked a smile. "You don't know me, Diana. I do, however, know you. You don't even know yourself as well as I do. Please, don't do this."

Wonder Woman vanishes for a half-second. In that half-second, Nightwing is able to swing the quarterstaff up to and across his mid section. The staff hits Wonder Woman across the temple. The impact surprises her not realizing the mystical properties of the staff. Nightwing supports the staff with his right arm and into her stomach pulling her above him. At the highest point of the arc, Diana adjusts her weight to flip over the staff hovering just above him. She then sees three wing-dings heading for her which she quickly blocks with her Bracelets of Victory. Nightwing dives out from under her and throws the staff toward her. She easily catches the staff as stands floating above the ground pausing. She uses the staff to attack Nightwing with a downward swing. Nightwing read the move five steps ahead and steps forward to redirect the staff movement and momentum downward. Her superior grip on the weapon isn't able to let go of the staff and follows the momentum toward the street. She hits the ground with a large thud.

Dick doesn't know Diana as well as he thinks he does, but he does understand Amazons. He studied them for years. Donna didn't know who she was or where she came from. Dick spent a lot of time being there for her, learning with her and helping her. They learned about Diana. She revolutionized the art of Amazonian fighting. Before, they'd learn to fight at distances with spears and bows and only utilizing swords and shields in rare close combat. Anything like daggers and maces were never used for anything but ritual. However, Wonder Woman's gifts from the gods granted her the ability to utilize the consistent attacking pattern of Amazonian fighting up close throwing other fighters off balance. She fought with her hands.

Nightwing twists the staff. It separates unevenly and Nightwing is left with a four foot stick. He Sung again with a downward thrust and was blocked by Wonder Woman's arm. She quickly extends her right leg outward kicking Nightwing in the stomach. Nightwing flew ten feet back along the street. He could feel the familiar sting and swell that comes with cracked ribs. If she didn't hold back that kick, his rib could have pushed back and punctured his lung. Standing up, he could see Wonder Woman in the familiar arms crossed hovering stance from earlier.

Nightwing began training for fighting when he was two. As a teenager, someone told him about an old character actor from the nineteen twenties named Buster Keaton. When Keaton was a child of five, his parents sewed a suitcase handle on his jacket, brought him on the vaudevillian stage and threw him back and forth twelve feet between them. Dick's first thought was at how easy Keaton had it. His father had him walking on his hands when he was four. He was flying through the air on the trapeze when he was five. Dick worked hard his whole life at flying. When Superman became public, Dick only wanted to fly higher than ever. When his parents fell, his world fell with them. He was adopted by the Batman. Batman focused that speed and agility for Dick to survive as a vigilante. He learned many fighting styles over the next few years. His agility made him excel at wado ryo, wing chun, tai kwan doand caporera. The Batman trained him to grapple and box. Dick learned to read other styles of fighting and to think and improvise. He's efficient in over thirty forms of weapon combat excelling in Escrima, shiruken throwing and tonfar and effective in twice as many. He knows that the best defense to the Amazonian fighting style is to deflection and entanglement of the constant attack pattern. Even after all this training and knowledge, Dick can't win this fight. It's not because he isn't skilled enough, but because she's Wonder Woman.

Nightwing gets up and begins to dust himself. He wants to cringe from the pain, but more than that, he wants her to see him stop himself from cringing. He knows that it will make her think it's an issue of pride. She'll then slow down and continue to hold back her punches. He rolls up his sleeves and removes his utility bucklers. They fall to the street heavily. He then holds his stick behind him and looks up at her. She begins to show a look of frustration. He runs at her and leaps as high as he can. In the air he twirls the stick and begins to slash downward. Diana easily blocks the stick and reverses it with another sidekick. Nightwing is lower than she anticipated and she missed him kicking around his left arm. Nightwing loosens his grip on the stick and lets it slide to his other hand trapping her leg at the knee between his shoulder (below) and the stick (above). When Nightwing lands on the pavement, he uses all his strength to pull her down to the street. With her now lying on the pavement face down, he steps over her and rotates the stick so it entangles her leg in a shinto garami. Aggravated, she flies off the ground and kicks Nightwing off of her. Nightwing pirouettes and lands on his feet, holds the stick in both hands and pushes it laterally across him catching Diana's advancing attempt at a tackle catching her right shoulder. He twists the stick counterclockwise deflecting her to his left. He then ducks as a knee passes over his head. Diana then throws a right hook. Nightwing is able to catch it with a ganseki otoshi garami. Halfway through, however, he reverses it into a gyaku ude. She twists under the move and (still floating) pushes him away from her. He rolls backward in the air ten feet before landing with both feet and one hand for balance, his left had still holding the stick.

Nightwing can't beat her. No matter how hard he strikes her, she'll only take the hit and move in to attack harder. A very strange style for a self-proclaimed pacifistic diplomat. She was granted the stamina of the gads, so chances are that he'd never be able to hit her hard enough to knock her out. Nightwing knows this situation too well. As a child, he was fighting the first Blockbuster by himself. He's squared off against Deathstroke. Having always been the underdog in every fight since the beginning of this livelihood, he's discovered that the best way to win is to keep the objective in sight. To beat Roland Desmond, have him concentrate on the Nightwing in front of him instead of the house's support beams he just smashed. In this case, he doesn't have to beat Wonder Woman yet, he just has to distract her.

"End this now Nightwing. I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't you think I would if that was an option?"

"Just tell me what this is about and I swear we will-"

A brief shadow passes above her distracting her thought. Then another. She looks behind her along the street to see hundreds of shadows flying swiftly. In the distance, she sees a huge swarm of little one person ships headed towards Metropolis. It takes her a moment to make out the faint yellow and black color scheme. There is a familiarity to the ships that she can't quite remember.

"What is this Di?"

She looks around to see Nightwing enter a building run down old building complex. Diana charges in after him.

Wonder Woman is arguably the most powerful being on the planet. She does, however, have flaws. The first of which are behavioral. Bruce taught him that she is very prideful when she fights. Perhaps it's a desire to make her people proud or she fights in the spirit of her mother Hippolyta. It could very well be in her blood as an Amazon, but the fact is undeniable. She will fight until she is unable to. She is also as stubborn in that sense. She will rarely ever ask for help, but she's recently been attempting to reform that habit. Psychologically is the most common assault on the princess, but she's also sound and strong. Then there's the other flaw. Whereas Superman is vulnerable to magic, Wonder Woman is bound to it. To deny magic is to deny her very being. Of coarse this is not exploited often for obvious reasons. How often do people have access to heaven and hell? How often can someone find Krono's eye or Poseidon's trident? For most, the answer is never. Nightwing on the other hand has seen heaven and hell. In fact, one of his friends owns Poseidon's Trident. Nightwing not only has access, he's well educated in the ways of magicfrom experience. She is bound to the rules of the gods... she was given gifts from Ares and Aphrodite and thus is bound.

Nightwing enters the doorway of the abandoned building. On a small table just inside the doorway is a bowl of golden apples and a small device. He hastily grabs one of them and turns around to see Diana coming toward him. He throws the apple as far into the street as he can. Diana stops, turns around chases after the apple. Nightwing takes the other two and runs further into the building. He reaches the stairway and starts to climb. Diana has picks up the apple. She looks back at Nightwing confused. She then reenters the building and follows the direction of Nightwing's heavy footsteps. She flies up the stairway seeing him on the third floor. As she reaches the second floor, a second apple falls down the well into an opening in the wooden base of the stairwell. Unable to resist, she flies back down the stairs and attempts to grab it. Reaching into the hole she feels a sting. She pulls out a bloodied hand. "What is this?"

Nightwing looks over the railing at an infuriated Wonder Woman. Smiling, he answers, "They're the Golden Apples of Hesparadese. Like Atalanta, you have to pick them from where they land. You are bound toAphrodite laws."

"Have you kept these records on the JLA like Batman?"

Nightwing's face quickly contracts to a look of seriousness. "No," he replies. "Donna told me. Just like she told me about the Essence of Seraphin, and how it can be used to coat a dagger." Diana quickly looks down at her hand. She gets a hold of the wooden panels on the ground and in one felt move pulls the floor boards up. Just inside the hole are five daggers laid in such a manner that they would cut anyone that reached inside. Furious, she flies up the stairway chasing after Nightwing. When she reaches the fourth floor, she sees Nightwing running towarda window. She's almost upon him when he throws the last of his apples far behind her. Unable to resist, she chases after the final apple. Nightwing presses a button on the device he recently grabbed and jumps out of the building. The first floor is the first to go. In less than a second every floor fills with an explosive impact. As Diana picks up the final apple, she is caught up in the fourth explosion. The entire building then begins to collapse. Instantly after being pushed up by the explosion, she's sent back down as the complex falls on her.

Nightwing, pushed out from the blast, flies down to half way into the intersection. He rolls as he lands hitting the ground causing more writhing pain to his broken rib, pulled shoulder and twisted ankle. A cloud of dust fills the streets surrounding him as he lies in the street, adrenaline wearing off and pain setting in. He looks up at the sky as a barrage of ships block out the sun. He sits up and looks toward the rubble. He set up the explosives so the building would implode on its own weight pulling in all twenty seven floors into the center and all the outer walls pulling in so fewer bystanders would be harmed. The pile of rubble stood about seven floors high. A large portion of it probably sank into the basement. He slowly stands as the dust begins to settle around him. There is a little movement in the huge pile. Nightwing shrugs it off as being the rubble settling. The little movement becomes bigger. Nightwing's eyes begin to widen as he sees a section of the rubble rise.

"Oh, come on!" he gasps. The pile in the center continues to rise. Then it begins to move laterally. He sees a figure stepping out of the rubble through the dust.

"You gotta be kidding me!" he screams. "I just hit you with a building. That should have at least slowed you down for a second."

"You know I don't give anyone that satisfaction" he heard the Amazon say as she stepped through the clearing. Her body was wracked with cuts and bruises all over her. She took a few slow limping steps down the rubble. "Your mettle has been tested, and… it… has been found… la…"

The Amazon keels over on the way down and rolls to the bottom. The potion works. Nightwing feels his whole body give rest as he makes sure the Amazon sleeps. He sees his utility bucklers in the street and slowly goes over to them. As he bends down to pick them up, a pair of red clad legs appears in front of him.

"We have to move fast Nightwing. I just saw an entire squadron of… Hey what happened here?" He looks up to see Flash standing before him with Batman over his right shoulder.

"Where the hell were you?" Nightwing asks as he puts on the two bucklers on his forearms.

"You wouldn't believe this, but the moment I picked up Batman he amazingly put me in this weird sleeve-choke from an improvised butterfly guard. I knew that I just had to keep running and with Wonder Woman chasing us, I didn't know at all what to do. But that's not what's important right now. I just saw fifty seven H.I.V.E. airships headed straight for this location and will be here any second. Yeah, I know. H.I.V.E.? That really weird organization that uses foot soldiers as cannon fodder? Well anyway, we have to get the others out of here before…"

Nightwing touches Flash's shoulder and the Flash feels a sharp pinch pierce through his costume.

"I'm sorry Flash." The Flash looks back at Dick who has a look of sorrow in his face. "What was that? What did you… whoa?" The Flash begins to see the world spin in front of him as he feels the drugs kick in. He looks directly at Nightwing's face trying to find the right words. "I'm sorry Flash, I'm so sorry."

"Why?"

Nightwing begins to feel the tears build up under his mask. "You don't understand. They have her."

A look of confusion sweeps across the Flash. He trusts Nightwing more than Superman. They literally went to hell for each other. Flash tries to get out a final question before fading out of consciousness. "Who?"

"Flash, they have my daughter."

Again, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to end it there. I'm still doing "past" research for the next chapter. This last one was a killer for me and I still don't think it works well.

I'd like to thank the Eternal Paladin, Midnight Raven, RobinofYJ, Esther-Channah and arsenal13 for sending me some great reviews and I hope this last chapter doesn't shatter your expectations.

I'd just like to emphasize that this is fan fiction and that I would never let a story like this happen in continuity. I'm just having fun. Thank you for your patience.