Bruce and Diana Wayne: here's more of the story. . . should be the rest in another chapter
dianaandbruce: thank you, I work with a visual style, I see everything in my head and am unsure sometimes if it gets through on the paper
oneredneckgoddess: hah! thank you.
Skite: they told Diana that she would die SOMETIME in the future, basically I meant everyone dies sometime. Odi, Amo et Excrucior is latin, actually a short poem/saying by a Roman poet named Catallus it means "I hated and I love, perhaps you ask why I do it, I don't know, but I feel it and am tortured" basicall the title was "Hate, Love and Torture"
ccabello: not soon, but better late then never
Nayvera: well, essential to your being, here lies another chapter, awaiting reading and review. Thanks for the kudos
robert1413: not soon, but here.
"Why don't you love me?" a small, female voice peppered the blaring wind as Wonder Woman threw her arm up to protect her face from the oncoming storm.
"I want to love you, but. . . IT'S SO HARD!!" the unmistakeable voice of Bruce Wayne became the wind as the gale blew Diana ten feet further away.
A chiding voice echoed in Diana's head,
"Careful Princess, I can't protect you here" it was Morpheus.
Racing forward, Diana tried to get to the center, fighting and clawing through the sheer force of Bruce's will.
"Bruce!!!" Diana screamed, allowing all of the air to flood out of her lungs as she let go and was swiftly thrown by the wind before it immediately calmed.
Everything still, a tear crawled down Diana's face as she witnessed a small raven haired girl in a white dress walk up to the image of Bruce Wayne dressed in black, kneeling with his face in his hands sobbing blood, and then touch his forehead with her finger.
"Mommy would make everything better, wouldn't she?"
Looking up with his tear stained face, Bruce answered,
"I lost your grandparents, do I have to lose your mother too?"
Letting out a sob, Diana floated stationary above the scene. Hera, must the pain of the world fall on one man? Who could remain unbroken . . . Bruce was already shattered beyond repair. Diana remembered Batman once saying everything after the death of his parents has been solace. Even me, she thought as a tear stung her face. Even me. Diana, remember your strength floated to her mind, as J'onn Jones monitored her psychically in Morpheus' lair.
Turning around, the little raven haired girl immediately broke into a wide smile as she ran towards where Wonder Woman was descending to the swirling Van Gogh ground.
"Mommy!!" throwing herself at her mother, the small girl flung her arms around Diana, who reciprocated deeply, tears now freely flowing as Bruce looked on in disbelief, his bloody tears turned to water. Kneeling on the ground, Diana could hear the whispers of her voice softly coating the wind until they were amplified by sheer volume:
"It's okay, everything is going to be okay, shh, darling, shh I . . . you're so beautiful. . ."
"I'm sorry, Diana" Bruce said, standing and turning to face the ever present void behind, his soul threatening to wade in.
Picking the small girl in her arms, Diana stood, cradling her against her chest as she went to face the one man so responsible for the fate of the world.
"Don't be, Bruce. She's not a deamon or a terror or something to cause sadness, for even if the dreams of the world came down to nothing, at least we've dreamed at all"
"I will destroy you"
"Better me than her".
"I'm selfish, Diana, I don't want to let you go. Even for her!"
"You don't have to let any of us go! Bruce, this child is the hope we need to ensure a future"
"At the cost of your life? It's too much!"
Diana stood silent, shutting her eyes and smelling the hair of her daughter. Slowly, both could hear a miniscule whisper,
"Please don't hate me, I never meant to hurt anybody. Please don't make me go to the bad place"
". . . Perhaps. . . There is another option"
"How?"
"Athena"
"Come again?"
"When Athena's mother was pregnant, a prophet told Zeus the child born would be more powerful than he and one day take over Zeus' throne, so Zeus swallowed Athena's mother and Zeus began to suffer from headaches, so Hephaestus went and cut open Zeus' head with an axe and Athena came out full grown and armoured"
"Your point?" he said with a growl, as the tempest shifted from greys to reds.
"The Fates said the reason for our healing was to shape the future with one last born warrior, what if this is it? What if with the birth of this child the war would be over? Would you deny future generations peace?!"
"Why can't it be me? Why can't I be the one to sacrifice!? It's always YOU! Why do I have to slink away!!"
"You DON'T!"
"Why am I always the one that has to be saved?"
"Daddy! Daddy! Save me!! Save me!!" the girl wailed, reaching from Diana's arms to leap as Bruce caught her and the world went black.
"Uuugggghhhhhh"
"Well that was sexy" Morpheus said, standing over the Princess with a glass of . . . some nameless drink in his hand.
"You're still here?" Diana grumbled, taking the drink and sniffing it.
"Wh..."
"Nectar. It's amazing what you can get Hermes to deliver in his dreams"
Taking a sip, Diana downed the whole cup in one large gulp. Wide-eyed, Morpheus poured more,
"Careful, too much of the stuff and you'll be drunker than an irishman on Saint Patrick's day"
Getting up holding her head, Diana stumbled into Morpheus.
"Woa there Amazon. Hey, that was intense in there, give yourself a moment, you're only human"
"Can humans fly?"
"Okay half human. Unlike someone here"
"Where's Bruce?"
"Taking a walk."
"Taking a walk?"
"I wasn't under the impression that echo lived here, I guess I was wrong"
"Where IS he?" Diana said, reaching for Morpheus' shirt and raising him to eye level.
"Outside. In the sun"
Taking off, Diana flew through the palace, once in a while getting dizzy and hitting the walls, but for the most part searching for a way out. Deciding punching through marble was not a post-traumatic past-time, she opted to call J'onn.
"Whe..."
"Turn around" his voice came from behind.
Spinning, Diana's vision swirrled as the martian came into a slightly more correct focus. Taking her shoulder, J'onn led the Amazon Princess to a small painting of a seascape, and touching it, zoomed through the portal into a beautiful morning.
"Bruce!" Diana yelled, running for the man who stood, his hands folded behind his back. As he turned, he held out his arms, and she threw her body into his waiting embrace. Standing silent for several more moments, the lovers took in the smell of each other and the sea. Fresh, vibrant and utterly intoxicating. Opening her eyes, Diana watched Bruce's worry-lined face, touching his brow with a finger.
"I do not know what will happen, or even what could come, but I am willing to allow the future its prize"
"As am I. Diana. . ." hugging her tighter, he continued, "I don't want what time there is to be wasted by my own petty battles"
"There is nothing petty in what you do, Dark Knight. The battles and wars you wage must go on, you must not stop fighting, none of us can. War has swallowed us whole, and she's a fickle monster who does not let go. None of us, short of suicide can leave her clutches with honour until the war is won. That is why we must keep fighting, and that is why I need you more than any other being on this planet or in the entire cosmos combined"
Taking another look at the sea, a sigh of release eminated from Bruce, and the scene faded into a brilliant light as the lovers awoke in Gotham.
"I... I wish to appologi..." Bruce started, taking a look around at the unusually sunny room in his Manor.
"What happened to my roof?"
"Roof?" Diana mimicked, looking up in pretended ignorance.
"Diana" Bruce said seriously, taking her jaw in his hand and forcing her to look in his eyes.
"There... might have been a disagreement. . . Which ended in my flying through the roof with a god in my hands"
"Dammit, woman! I have to PAY for that!"
Looking him up and down Diana smiled a wry grin, struggling to stop the giggles in her cheeks from exploding. Bruce surveyed the damage, then turned awkwardly when he didn't hear Diana say anything.
"What?" he asked, hands on his hips.
"You look sexy when you're annoyed"
"Annoyed? How about angr..."
"Shut up, Bruce" Diana said, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him passionately. Behind the kiss, Diana could hear muffles of Bruce trying to speak, so she deepened the kiss until he gave up and joined in. A minute later, the couple destroyed another fragment of wall in their passion as the Fates weaved on.