45 minutes later the five of the Justice League members with Nightwing is standing in front of an old warehouse in the outskirts of the city of Gotham. The warehouse looked abandoned for a long time.
"The signal is coming directly from under the warehouse." J'onn stated.
"We need to find an entrance." John added.
"It is hidden and won't be easy to find. Superman can you see anything?" J'onn said.
"No. There's nothing that can be looked as an entrance." Superman answered.
"But there must be something. Something we are overlooking." Shayera stated angrily.
"But Superman just looked." John argued.
"What if the door of the entrance is made of or covered with leads? Superman's vision won't work then." Nightwing proposed, folding his arms over his chest. He was anxious to get to the bottom of this, find out where the signal leads them, what or who will they find. There's a big chance that Bruce is alive and he may be out there, seeking help.
"He is right. Let's search more thoroughly." Superman agreed.
So they started looking for any kind of trapdoor or hidden entrance but nothing was there. When they were getting frustrated it was Flash who made the discovery. Inside the warehouse there was a doll hanging down from the ceiling by a thin wire. Because of curiosity he pulled the doll, trying to get it free from the wire. As soon as he pulled the doll, there was a flash of light and the warehouse surrounding them slowly begin to fade away.
"What is this?" John asked.
"Magic." J'onn replied in his usual stoic manner.
After the warehouse vanished from their sight they found a trapdoor on the ground. It was glowing because of magic.
"Finally you proved yourself useful, Wally." Shayera stated with a smirk.
"Hey!" Flash protested with a frown on his face.
"Come on buddy!" John said guiding Flash away from Shayera and towards the entrance.
To their surprise they found the trapdoor was not locked. "We have to be careful. We already found evidences of magic. There could be danger down there." Superman said. "And neither of us has any defense against any kind of magic, except Shayera's mace."
"We need Di to be here." Flash said.
"You are right, Wally but we can't say anything to her." J'onn said. Flash opened his mouth to protest but J'onn beat him to it. "She is in a fragile state and it will be best not to tell her anything until we confirm our suspicion."
At J'onn's explanation Wally nodded and didn't say anything.
The six of them slowly got inside the trapdoor to find themselves in a narrow dark corridor which were partially lit by torches on the walls. "What is this place?" Wally murmured.
"Don't know but be careful, Wally. There can be traps out there." Shayera said with a caring smile.
They explored the corridors but found nothing noticeable. So they decided to follow the signal. The signal led them to a room at the far end of one of the corridors. There's a single torch attached at the side of the door to light the entrance of the room.
Superman tried to open the door but as soon as he touched the door he got electrified by dark magic. He fell down on his knees as his body smoked.
"Superman are you okay?" J'onn said. Others were looking over him with concern too.
"I will be fine, just give me a minute." Superman said getting up on his feet slowly but he had to lean against the wall. The shock tampered with his strength. "Don't touch it. It's magic." He warned the others.
"Maybe I can do something about it." Shayera said pulling out her mace.
"Shayera it's dangerous." John protested almost instantly, concerned for his girlfriend.
"Do we have any other choice?" Shayera snapped at him. If there is Batman behind the door, there is no way she will leave him there without trying to help him. "Stand aside." She pushed John away from her way and readied her mace to strike the door.
With one mighty swing her mace clashed against the door. She felt an involuntary shudder ran through her whole body upon the contact but she didn't stop. She hit the door again and again until it broke down. She bent down on her knees and took some deep breaths because her whole body was aching in pain from the effects of magic. John placed his arm over her shoulder to provide some comfort.
"Shay…. Are you okay?" John asked, concern lacing his voice.
"I…. I am fine." Unsteadily she got on her feet with John's help.
Nightwing rushed past them inside the room. He stopped and became still seeing the occupant inside the room. Others followed him immediately. There inside the room, sitting on a small bed was Lex Luthor.
"You are alive? What are you doing here?" Superman said in shock.
Luthor looked irritated at his question. "What does it look like? I am imprisoned here!"
"How are you alive?" Shayera asked.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Luthor countered with narrowed eyes.
"We shall question him later. We need to get out from here." J'onn suggested.
"J'onn is right. Let's go." Superman said.
"Wait!" Dick stopped them. "We need to find the tracker. It is here in this room."
"Alright. Wally, John and J'onn get Luthor out of here. We will follow you shortly." The three of them nodded and led Luthor outside. Superman watched them go. "Now let's find it." But Dick was already searching the room for it. Under the bed, down the mattress, inside the pillow, but there was nothing.
"Where can it be?" Dick said frustrated with himself.
"Wait. I see it." Superman said.
"Where?" Both Dick and Shayera asked.
Superman slowly bent over the bed and looked at a plate on which food was served. He gently lift up the plate and found a small device sticking under the plate. The device was too small to trace it easily with naked eyes. He unattached it from there and took a good look at it before putting it inside his belt.
"Let's leave this place."
TWO HOURS LATER AT THE WATCHTOWER
Luthor was seated in a chair looking at the five members of the Justice League in front of him.
"Talk." Superman said.
"What do you want to know?" Luthor asked glaring at him.
"Tell us exactly what happened just before Batman went to space." Superman said.
Luthor took a deep breath before he started to speak. "What happened?!" He said in outrage. "Wonder Woman punched me so hard that I blacked out. Then I knew no more. When I woke up I found myself in that strange place lying on that damn bed."
The Justice League members looked at each other. Luthor being alive is the biggest proof that Diana is innocent and Luthor admitted it with his own mouth.
"Do you have any idea who captured you?" Shayera asked.
"I never saw anyone except a witch with purple hair." Luthor replied.
"Witch with purple hair? Alright. What did she want from you?" Superman asked.
"She wanted the contacts of the world's top scientists who has the knowledge about making nuclear bombs." Luthor revealed.
"And you gave her that information? Are you stupid?" Shayera said in outrage.
"What should have I done?!" Luthor snapped at her. "Withheld the information? The witch has her ways to make her victim speak."
"We understand you, Luthor. Wait here, we will be back." Superman and the others left leaving Luthor locked in the interrogation room.
FEW MINUTES LATER
"Who can be that witch? And most importantly what will she do with a nuclear bomb? Blow us up?" Flash asked.
"We don't have answer to any of your questions, Wally." John said.
"No." Dick arrived at that moment. He had heard everything Luthor said. "We know something."
"What's that?" Superman asked.
"I think I know who the witch is." Dick said.
"Who?" Shayera asked.
"Circe." Dick said, his jaws tightening.
"Circe? You mean that witch who turned Diana into a pig?" Superman asked.
"Yeah. That one." Dick replied. "How many purple haired witch we know who will try something like this? It was Circe."
"Can she be the 'Queen' we heard about?" Flash asked.
"Unlikely. There's someone else. If Circe is behind this she would've used magic to annihilate us, not nuclear bombs." Shayera said.
"Alright. We know they are planning to build bombs but why are they stealing diamonds from different places? It is completely irrelevant." Superman stated.
"Maybe they are trying to distract us, focus our mind on something else while they execute their master plan?" Shayera said.
"That's a possibility." J'onn agreed with Shayera.
"But what about Br…. Batman?" Dick interrupted them. "We found the tracer but didn't find the person who helped us."
Superman bowed his head down for a moment before he stood up on his feet and held Dick by his shoulder. "Dick, we don't know for sure whether it was Bruce who helped us. Yes, the chances are high that it was him who helped us like always. But you have to realize that it is unlikely that he has survived the blast in the space. Remember what Diana said? She went to find him but he wasn't there. Despite all this I also believe that he is alive." He gave Dick a small smile. "He will come back because he is Batman."
"Thanks, Superman. What will you do with Luthor?" Dick said sadly.
"We will take Luthor to the public and prove that Diana didn't kill him. She is innocent." Superman said.
Everyone nodded.
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
A woman sat in a high chair and two more women was knelt down in front of her. The chair was turned away from them so the two women couldn't see who is seated in the chair.
"My Queen, please forgive us." Tsukuri said. "We don't know how the Justice League tracked the President down."
"We will get to the bottom of this immediately." Shiva added.
"Do you know what you have done?" Came a harsh and cold reply from the woman who is seated in the chair. "It was my perfect plan to ruin Wonder Woman's image in public, separate her from the Justice League. But you ruined it all."
A shiver ran down the spine of both Shiva and Tsukuri. "Please, my Queen be merciful. Give us one more chance."
"You have served me well except the last failure. I am merciful, so I would give you two another chance. Don't disappoint me this time." The mysterious woman said.
"Thank you, my Queen. We won't disappoint you this time. You have our word." Shiva said.
"It better be, for your own sake." Came the cold reply. "Now go and make the preparations. It is almost time."
"Yes, my Queen." They both bowed before leaving.
The woman kept her gaze fixed on a picture of a younger Diana in front of her. She took it and examined it for some time. "You have caused me a lot of pain, Diana. Both you and your mother. You made me suffer. Now it is your turn to suffer. You will beg me to kill you once I am done with you." She finished speaking and crushed the metal frame of the picture in her hand as if it was made of paper.
NOTE: Another update. I hope you will enjoy this one. The story is nearing its end. Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.