Title: Battered Heart
author: Cindy Ryan
notes and summary: See part one

In her dream Diana stirred quite comfortable in the heap of blankets and Steve's warm arms. Gray weak morning sunlight attempted to penetrate the room.

"Morning."Steve whispered as he kissed her neck and left shoulder.

"Mmmm."Diana agreed not opening her eyes.

"It is morning; isn't it?"Steve asked as he continued to caress her.

"Barely."Diana commented and turned in his arms.

"Good."Steve said with a grin. "We have time."

"Shouldn't we be getting supplies for the dance?"Diana asked even as Steve kissed her. "I need a dress."

"You'd look beautifal in anything."Steve replied with a smile. "It's early we have a couple hours to ourselves."

"That sounds nice."Diana said allowing herself to snuggle deeper into Steve's embrace.

"Yes it does."Steve agreed with a grin as he kissed her once again.

In the next four hours Bruce had to admit he was impressed with the amount of work they got done. Barry and Victor's computer programs had been finished and made things much easier. They went through hundreds of texts some they wouldn't have had access to without Bruce throwing the Wayne name around. Now Bruce sat staring at a projected image of a parchment from Alexandria. The text had been translated. This document described the battle that banished Steppenwolf the first time. Though this text had it as almost folklore. Something so old it was legend.

"Think I got something."Victor stated as he moved his hands in front of him scrolling through holographic images. "Mentions Steppenwolf's powers and his ax."

"Thanks Victor."Bruce acknowledged as the second holographic image appeared and was translated.

"I connected us to the Atlantian database..."Curry spoke up quietly.

Barry's mouth dropped open as Bruce did a double take.

"You can do that?"Bruce asked.

"We adapt to the ages."Curry retorted returning his attention to the laptop. "It took awhile for the translator programs to work."

"Thank you."Bruce acknowledged.

"With the search I did I found this."Curry said as new holographic images appeared above the center of the table. "Apparently one of our ancestors was fascinated by Steppenwolf's ax even tried to make a similar weapon but was shut down by the ruling council."

"Fancy that."Victor muttered. "Powers that be didn't want somebody with a powerful magical weapon."

"He had a prototype of a sword."Curry continued putting that image up. "It was destroyed but his research is here; what little has survived the centuries. He became a bit of an outcast after that."

Bruce stood and walked to the image of the prototype sword. As he did Bruce's cell phone rang and he took it out of his pocket and placed it to his ear to answer.

"Wayne"Bruce greeted gaze fixed on the holographic image.

A smile broke across the billionaire's face as he listened.

"Thanks, Doctor. I'll be down in a few minutes."Bruce said as he ended the call and looked at the group. "Diana's awake."

"That's awesome!"Barry responded in relief.

"She have her powers?"Curry inquired.

"She was still groggy when he called me so we don't know yet."Bruce explained as he walked to the door. "Other good news was her fever was down slightly."

"Do you want us to keep digging?"Victor asked as Bruce reached the door.

"Yes, if she's mortal we'll need a way to reverse it."Bruce ordered and left.

Once in the elevator Bruce did something he hadn't done in a long, long time. He sent off a silent prayer of thanks. Diana was awake that was the important thing; the rest they would deal with.

Kal-El was starting to think his idea had been a waste of time. Then finally the fortress began finding the information he and his friends needed While it wasn't an exact location of Diana's island it was close enough for them to narrow it down. The fortress had also found some information on Steppenwolf. Superman memorized both and then quickly left. He poured on speed to catch up with his friends hoping he was in time.