I'm so sorry for taking quite long to update—a trip to the province carried me off, far away from any stretch of technology. But anyhow, I'm back and my current chapter is well… right in front of you.

Thank you once again to my wonderful, beautiful readers… I simply love y'all!

And I apologize if my pairings are too numerous that it's already superfluous and boring. I was just too excited that I wasn't thinking straight… haha… I'm not sure though if I'm writing another JLU fic anytime soon after this, my plot bunny is missing… But hopefully, this story continues to excite ya guys… XD

Enjoy!

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As her poised footsteps echoed across the empty hallway, Donna's gaze was blank and meditative. She struggled against the impulse to turn around, get a hold of Dick, and convince herself that she had to be right. She had to be right that he hadn't ratted on her while he was teleported back to Bludhaven late last night.

She feigned a smile when a couple of heroes walked by.

When she was out of eyeshot, she scowled—despising herself the more as her forehead crinkled into profound lines of critical contemplation. What made matters more worrisome for her was the fact that Bludhaven was a jogging distance from Gotham. And time was definitely on Dick's side if he ever planned on taking a round trip to Bruce's mansion. Whether it was during the night before, or as soon as dawn had cracked night's scintillating shadows, Dick could have had enough time to enlighten the Batman.

Oh Hera help me…

She blew out a weary sigh. Why was she suddenly so suspicious of Dick? He was her good buddy, and he used to be the Titan's confidant as well as smart-ass leader. And she still believed that he was as trustworthy as before. But then… why has she constantly peered over her shoulder several times, or why couldn't she stop haranguing herself for telling Dick everything she knew?

It was unusual… and annoying.

She uncharacteristically cursed aloud, consequently earning skeptical stares from fellow Justice League members. She ignored them and almost flew to her sister's room for cognate comfort.

She inhaled deeply before knocking her sister's door.

Expecting her sister to answer the door in a matter of seconds, Donna closed her eyes, leaned her head on the doorframe, and hummed a soft lullaby that her mother always sang to her before she crept into sleepy darkness when she was just a little girl.

When Diana hadn't opened the door, Donna frowned. Another strange episode. She made a clucking noise from her throat—a childish habit that effectively relieved her tension. But this time it wasn't doing any good. She began to bang on the door.

"Sister?" She asked, her voice rising. She slammed her closed fists on the door.

Silence.

"Okay, okay, okay. After I'm done with whatever it is I'm about to do, I'm not buying you a new door!" She bellowed before breaking through the door.

Shards of metal littered the floor of Diana's room as Donna noisily strode inside. She casually trampled them.

As soon as she was clear-headed from the trivial impact, she gasped out loud when she saw Diana sitting at the foot of the bed, her eyes not glancing at Donna, the necklace embracing her sister's slender neck.

Oh shit.

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"Bruce!" Dick dashed to the Batman's side, his long legs thrashing about as he moved to catch up with Bruce's hurried steps. "Slow down. C'mon… think this over more thoroughly why don't you? There's gotta be another way."

Batman whirled suddenly at Dick.

Nightwing nearly slammed into Bruce, but his innate agility saved him from scoring the embarrassment. He narrowed his eyes at Bruce, his eyes practically pleading and mocking the Batman.

Batman hissed at Nightwing after making certain that no passing ear heard them. "Call me by my given name again, I'll bring you down with me if my identity is ever revealed—and that should never, never happen while I'm still able to kick your ass all the way to Timbuktu."

He strode away, leaving Nightwing angry and almost shameful with himself. Shaking his head to hopefully elude a migraine from stinging his head, he made another try on Bruce.

"Okay, let's say you're going to talk to Donna, convince her that Diana's in no safe situation—as a result my friendship with Donna is jeopardized—what makes you think Diana would think twice? You do know that she's as stubborn as you are."

Frustrated, Batman wheeled around, said, "She will listen to me. She has to if she cares for her sister so much. And about your friendship with Troia, it's already broken the minute you told me everything."

Bruce was about to walk in the direction of Diana's room but Nightwing pulled him by the shoulder. "I told you this because I'm also anxious about Diana. Seeing Donna's worried expression didn't make me feel at ease… it felt wrong. And it's harsh and selfish of you to overlook my trying position here. It's unfair that you feel careless about my friendship with Donna," Nightwing said as he firmed his grip on Bruce's shoulder when Bruce tried to wrench away. "A sincere apology might work for the both of them, especially on Diana's part. I couldn't blame her for taking extreme measures. You've hurt her so much. Why don't you ever consider that?"

Bruce scowled at Dick. "Apologies don't work for Diana. When she's decided, that's it. Nothing could ever sway her stand. And about your bond, I do care dammit! It's just that… right now, Diana's my… priority. And Donna's relayed anxiety doesn't make me feel happy at all. It's niggling and it has to be acted upon at once. So if you do care about Diana, you'd better shut up or get the hell out of here."

Disgruntled, Dick butted in, "How do you know apologies don't work for Diana if you haven't even tried it before?"

Gritting his teeth, Bruce was about to turn around to wail at Dick to shut it when a shocking boom interrupted their diatribe.

They instantly dropped the subject at hand and darted to where the sound originated. Bruce could feel his heart plummeting downward as they neared Diana's room. Something's not right…

He stopped when he saw sprawled figures littering the hall's floor around him. He saw half of the team barely conscious as they groped for their surroundings and tried to clear up their misty heads. And surprising enough, the majority of them were men.

Nightwing helped Dove and Green Arrow prop up against the wall. When Ollie finally focused on Nightwing, Dick asked, "What happened? Who did this?"

Even before hearing the dazed hero's coarse answer, Bruce and Dick already knew.

Bruce ran forward, careful not to step on any of the unconscious' faces or outstretched arms.

As he approached the destination in mind, he heard clanking metal against metal and high-pitched battle cries reverberating along the lifeless hallway. He skipped over another body, tried to pick up his pace. Gawd, this was like springing from one tire to another in military school.

He slowed down when he heard a voice so piercingly familiar but cold roaring about him.

"Hear me yet again my sisters! Either fight with me or join the hedge-born men and fall as they did. Those vain, folly-fallen barnacles must see their end!"

After that was said, more clinking metal against metal resumed, more bodies crammed in a heap in front of him, and more skipping instead of running for the Batman. This was just perfect.

When he landed on a clearer area, he suddenly swore aloud.

For some odd reason, he instinctively knew that he should have slowed down a bit while he had the chance. But it was too late to double back. Before he could move away—how could he when unconscious bodies blocked every uncluttered space around him?—Donna was thrown towards him.

He fell back with Donna lying on top of him. But he immediately leapt up when he felt ragged breathing huffing in his face—someone cushioned his landing and was grudgingly paying the price by being flattened underneath Bruce and Donna's combined weight. He ignored Donna's groan when she slid to the floor as he stood up and tried to rouse Green Lantern. But he was out cold like a rock. Unbelievable.

He turned to Donna and helped her up. She rubbed her head as she snorted a thank-you to Batman.

Before Bruce could grill her, Nightwing appeared behind her, his hand tenderly rubbing her back and shoulder. He rolled his eyes openly when he saw Bruce frowning at him. Dick knew that they needed to act fast before Diana became past outrageous and started taking serious actions… like maybe killing all men on the entire planet.

But there was nothing wrong checking up on his friend first.

"You okay?" he asked Donna gently. She only nodded slowly, her nose and forehead crinkling in swelling pain the instant she moved her head. She massaged her temples, then squinted her eyes open.

The sight of the Batman looming before her made the pain implausibly more unbearable. Revealing her frustration, she rashly asked, "What do you want?"

As much as Batman wanted to snap back, he bottled it in. There was no time for any of them to bark at each other's face. "How long has she been wearing the orb?"

When she heard his soft query, the headache and color were instantly drained from her face. She whirled around to confront Dick. She scowled at him when she saw him looking the other way.

Although it was only a murmur, she could decipher the words by reading his lips. Sorry, but I had to—for Diana's sake.

Donna could feel anger and hurt clashing against one another—her temper of feeling betrayed eventually ruling out her awareness of the difficult situation at present. But when she looked up to find her sister slamming Stargirl into a wall, she held it in, breathed in deeply till her nose couldn't suck all the available air into her dog-tired lungs.

Ignoring Dick's remorseful eyes and the Batman's brooding gaze, she shook her head. "I don't know, I really don't." Frustrated tears began to well up, but she rubbed them off. "As soon as Dick left for Bludhaven, I volunteered to help out—or rather, replaced my sister's position. Using the orb took a huge toll out of her energy, so she needed all the muscle she can gather to… don the orb again."

Seeing her distressed expression, Dick held in the impulse to massage her nape reassuringly, but he knew it would just aggravate her even more. So he only stood behind her, intently listening to what she had to say while he kept a sharp look at Bruce in case his mentor tried to exacerbate the heavy mood surrounding them.

"When I returned from the mission, I found my sister wearing it…" Angry tears flowed down, but she roughly rubbed them off with the back of her hand. "Then… she told me to make a decision: either join her or fight her. I tried to talk some sense into her, which was highly pointless. She got the hint and knocked me into a wall. And you already know where that ended up…"

They glanced up to see Wonder Women executing a serious uppercut at Superman. They winced when she knocked the breath out of him by striking hard at his chest.

"If he wasn't Superman, he would have a hole in his heart by now," Flash ran to them, his costume ripped off at the chest and a bruise was coloring his cheek. An unconscious Shayera was propped on his right shoulder while the left was occupied by Fire.

He gently set them on the floor, making sure they were still breathing. Then he looked up, asked, "None of us had the courage to fight a colleague who's under some whacked spell… so we were pretty hesitant, especially Superman there. And on top of that, she's pelting fast… something that we assumed she was incapable of when we were swarming around her. But…"

Shaking his head, he said somberly, "We gotta stop her now."

Donna nodded her head. "Talking or pleading with her will do no good, especially when I can't get a hold of her necklace. She's too fast for me… somehow the orb gave her amplified strength and speed. It has given her all the advantages she needs to carry out the possible annihilation of men."

"How long have you been gone?" Batman brusquely asked. He didn't need further explanation on the orb's purpose. The only info he desperately required was how much time they had left to stop Diana.

Donna mulled over this. "Not more than twelve hours."

"Okay, we still have enough time to think of a strategy that might work for our benefit but—"

They were interrupted when Dick wailed, "Incoming!"

Donna caught the chucked bar of metal before it had the chance to crush them. They gazed up to see Wonder Woman's hard focus on them.

"Uh oh…" Flash and Nightwing muttered in unison.

Still composed but tensed, Bruce barked at Donna. "There has to be another way!"

Before Donna could answer him, Diana flung herself at Donna. Flash darted in their direction, picked up the bodies before Donna's ruptured landing flattened them.

He did his best to set them on a crash-free zone, checked for their subtle pulses and ran to where the Batman and the rest were huddled in fighting stances.

"Donna couldn't handle her long enough," Flash said. "What options do we have left besides reaching out for the necklace?"

"I believe a diversion won't work on her… Amazons were trained to defend themselves from any sort of distraction since they were just in beginner's bras," Nightwing suggested with frustration. He instantly looked up and gasped when he saw Diana grabbing Donna by the neck. He nearly made a sprint for it, but Bruce stopped him.

"It wouldn't make any difference if you try to save her… Donna herself could hardly lift a punch at her," Batman said as he gradually let go of a flushed Nightwing.

"Well we couldn't stand here like sitting ducks! We have to do something… like now!" Dick wailed as he ran to Donna's rescue. Nightwing nudged Flash to follow suit, who nodded and outran Dick's pace.

Bruce almost chased after them, but he knew better than that. He cursed aloud, berating himself for his absolute futility to solve the problem that practically hammered them into a pulp. Considering the miniscule chances they might have to lessen further damage, he simply strode to where Superman was massaging his head. Sensing that someone loomed over him, Clark looked up.

Batman offered him a hand and when Superman accepted it, Bruce said hastily, "Get everybody unconscious out of here. This doesn't concern any of them or you except me. And don't ask any questions because I refuse to answer any of them."

Bruce turned to run to where his protégé was virtually throwing sticks at Diana, but he stopped short when Superman mumbled tentatively, "Fine, but I trust you know what you're getting yourself into…"

"I'm not certain myself but what other choice do we have when our manliness is at stake?"

Before Superman could retort, Batman already fled, his legs weighing a ton as each step directed him to Diana, his skin turning into clammy film over his skin. He drew in a long breath, but instead of satisfying his drying lungs, he absurdly felt like drowning; each draw of breath refused to feed air into his starved lungs.

He felt idiotic, stupid… and maudlin sentiments weren't helping him as he swung a Baterang at Diana. She expectedly dodged it with her invincible silver cuffs. How can he stop her, save her from a doom that was irreparable if crossed over the line? How much time did he have left? Was there another way? There has to be!

Before he realized it, her attention was directed to him, her uncharacteristically supercilious eyebrows attempting to draw him to intimidation, but he was as adamant as she was. He will not lose to her… not to the orb. He glared back at her. I'm not afraid of you. I will not lose to you.

Diana's lips peeled back to reveal gleaming malice. Bruce could feel a prickly sensation creeping up his cold spine but he ignored it. He readied himself, his electrocuting Baterang materializing in his hand. He secretly squinted his eyes at Wally.

Exhausted but determined to save his gender, the Flash made a tornado around her but she quickly rebuffed it with her own cyclone so massive that Flash was nearly swept up into the air. At the same time, Donna lunged at her sister after Nightwing threw smoke bombs at her.

Annoying enough, Diana brushed them off as if she were simply swatting flies. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Before Diana could attack her sister without knowing it, Batman hurled the weapon in Diana's direction. She dodged it with her metal bracelet but a blast of sharp electricity surged into her as contact between bracelet and weapon activated minor electrocution and momentary immobilization for the target. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

Bruce could feel his heart sliding down his stomach as he watched her writhing in numbing pain. But he had no other choice but to hurt her… just a bit. Wally darted to her, his hand outstretched to snatch the necklace away when a blinding light suddenly enveloped them.

They squinted their eyes shut, their hands blocking the light from hitting their faces. Even when their eyelids were wrinkled close, purple dots blinked before them. Bruce tried to slit open his eyelids a bit, but the light was too acute for the human eye could bear.

And then, it disappeared. In a fraction of a second, the blinding flash vanished as if it weren't there in the first place. Puzzled, they immediately scanned their surroundings.

The hallway was undamaged, clean, spotless. No sign of a scuffle alerted anyone that a fight against man's status had been jeopardized just a second ago. No metal shard or screw was segregated from its site. Everything was just as it was before Diana first swung a blow at Donna.

They all glanced at the sound of footsteps as Zatanna and Vigilante turned to the hallway where they stood dumbfounded. When the duo sensed that they were the focal attention of the Batman and his confused team, they stopped and tilted their heads in puzzlement.

"Did a tornado just pass by without the rest of us knowing about it?" Zatanna commented as she stared at Flash and Nightwing's disheveled appearance.

"You can say that," Flash shakily replied.

After a brief exchange between them was over, Nightwing asked quietly, "What just happened? It seems that… their memories were swiped clean excluding ours…"

"We're as tangled up as you are, Dick. It's too weird beyond…" Donna's voice trailed away when she noticed Diana missing. She whirled around to face them. Batman immediately met her gaze, then they broke into a run to Diana's room.

When they arrived at the door, it was mysteriously whole again and was left ajar. They cautiously stepped in, their hearts pounding mercilessly as they searched the room. Empty.

Except…

On the wall above the bed's headboard was an engraved writing. Nightwing hesitantly approached it, its cursive penmanship beautiful and antediluvian. Batman and the rest read the note quietly.

How do you save a love you've already killed?

As their minds groped for the insinuated meaning left behind by the mysterious script, Batman's circumspect gaze finally fell to an object lying still on the bed's center. He tenderly held it between his forefinger and thumb… inspecting it closely.

"A laurel?"

As if she was electrocuted at the feet, Donna jumped to Bruce's side and hastily snatched it from his grip. Before Bruce could scold her for her rash managing of critical evidence pointing towards Diana's strange disappearance, Donna's comprehending gasp and subsequent meditation quieted them all to the extent that it was a nuisance to even release a restrained sigh.

After a moment's unsettling pause, Donna whispered, "The god has spoken."

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To be continued…

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