Ah finally I have a direction I want to take this story! Okay we start off in a little flashback and then we move forward. Keep moving forward as Disney always said! Okay I'll stop talking enjoy the story doves! Also my longest chapter yet! A lot happens so hopefully you can keep up!
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice and I'm not part of DC sorry doves.
Chapter 3- Lost not Dead
*10 years before the story starts on the island of Themyscira*
Bells were the first noise Diana heard that terrible night. Bells, and screams. She was awoken from her peaceful slumber by the harsh, trilling sound of the bells of war.
Diana jumped out of bed with a start and went to her open window, peering out to gaze at her city. The sight that met her eyes horrified her. The city was ablaze, Amazonians lay dead and injured on the streets of their sacred hiding place. All around the palace, other brave woman warriors protected their royal family, fighting strange beings. There were all manner of these beings- short, small, tall, even some that were gigantic.
*Orion, where is he?* she thought, frantically searching for her clothing and pulling it on easily. She left her chamber and rushed into her son's room, where he stood on tip toes, searching the battlefield below with bright eyes.
"Orion! Get away from that window! Come here," he ran over to her, blue eyes wide with curiosity.
"What's goin' on momma? What are those things?" Diana picked up the six year old and swiftly walked towards her mothers chambers.
"I do not know, but they are no friends of ours. Stay away from them. You will be safe hiding in the palace," she instructed, her baby boy nodding seriously into her neck.
"Okay, momma," Diana had finally reached her mother, who was strapping battle armor onto her body. The princess lay her young prince on his grandmothers bed, where he snuggled quickly underneath the soft covers and eased his head on the numerous pillows. Diana started lacing the back of her mothers armor immediately, listening to her speak.
"Diana, are you and Orion unharmed?" At the nod of her daughter, Hippolyta continued, "Good. Keep it that way. Our people need me on the battlefield. These creatures are ones we have never faced before, and our warriors are quickly becoming overwhelmed," Orion sleepily rubbed at his eyes and yawned.
"But why are they attacking us grandmother? I thought you said attacking a warrior when they aren't ready is dishonorable?" Hippolyta smiled down at her grandson, then turned to the window, hiding her grimace from the small child.
It is indeed, young one," she growled, "Unfortunately, not all care how honorable they seem. I am needed to help defeat these dishonorable ones ," Diana was already pulling on her armor and looked up.
"Give me a few seconds and I shall join you, my queen"
"No you shall not. You need to protect your son," her mother argued.
"Mother we have other maidens who can protect him, I am needed to help," the queen put a placating hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"Your child should take priority over all else. We have enough warriors. Protect him, he's the only one you get," Orion's gaze followed his grandmother then turned back to his mother. She strode back to the window and watched the battle, not wanting to have her son see the anger which clouded her judgement. With a soft thump he fell to the ground on his feet, and went to watch with her.
"It's like a bed time story," Diana placed a hand on her baby's head, tousling his shaggy black locks and smiling lovingly. She looked at his face, which still held the traces of babyhood. He only now was beginning to grow the barest of definition in his cheeks, and the definition of muscles beginning in his upper arms. But his eyes still held all of their innocence. All of their love for the world. Diana wanted nothing more than to keep that for her child, to keep it so his eyes were never tainted by the sight of horror or battle. But, he was an Amazonian, and Amazonian's can't help but feel a love for battle. It was in his blood. But for now, she would do everything she could to keep that sweet gentleness constant in his big blue eyes.
"Not quite, don't worry the Amazonian warriors haven't lost a battle in almost a hundred years," endless minutes of fighting went on. Crashing sounds and screaming shouts from people and swords continued to drift up to the room Diana was trapped in. She paced, wishing more than anything to help her sisters and mother, yet the young boy who was sitting on the bed kept her at bay. Her mother was right, only six summers had passed since she had brought him into this world, yet the boy was very adept at bypassing any guard or security she placed on him. The safest course of action for her child would be to stay close to her
Finally, as dawn was first hinting to arrive, she heard the loud splinter of wood and almost metallic hisses. Diana crossed over to the window and watched stock still as the creatures invaded the royal home, her own warriors following closely after.
She grabbed Orion and took him down the back stairs silently. Entering near the back door, she put him down and looked quickly behind her.
"Go to the forest. Hide in a tree, my love," she whispered to him pressing a kiss to his forehead when his lower lip trembled in fear and he clutched to her tightly, "Do not fight those who might approach you. Run. If they get too close, blow this whistle and I shall find you, darling." Putting her own silver whistle around his neck, she sent off her child to the woods. Diana grabbed the nearest sword she could find raising it in front of her and preparing for battle. She watched anxiously as he ran through the trees, his silver bracelets finally stopped winking in the setting moon's glow.
The creatures crawled fast and low to the ground, the smallest ones did anyway, the larger ones sulked in the doorway, blocking her only exit. Diana released a calming breath. Then it was time to fight, not for only her safety, but her sons too.
The small creatures were ridiculously easy to take down. They didn't attack as a group, not using the team advantage they had been given. One on one Diana simply had to strike once or twice to slay them. The hulking ones now lumbered foreword. They were the same height as Diana but she was faster. She hit one of the grey blobs in the face and slid under the other slicing up its belly. They fell easily and she felt only dashes of their blood stain her uniform. With the fire of battle in her heart, the princess went off to finish more of the creatures.
She ran through the household to get to the main heart of the battle, but something slowed her. It was quiet. Very quiet. No more noises of battle, no more war cries. Quiet. Then voracious cheering. Cheering in Greek. Her people had defeated them. Diana dashed over to her mother who held her battle helmet high in victory.
"Congratulations mother!" Hippolyta beamed at her daughter.
"The day is ours!" But the elder amazonians face slid into a frown as she noticed Diana was alone, "where is Orion?"
"We were attacked by some of the brutes. I didn't want him to get stuck in the middle of that so I sent him to hide in the forest. He has a whistle to call me if he needs,"
"You left him alone! Those woods were where the Devils first came from!" The leaders face was an ashen grey and she turned to her warriors to instruct them to go to the woods, but her daughter was already gone, sprinting in the direction where her baby had run off to.
Diana called for him, her voice filled with anguish and horror. She ran to through the trees looking for any sign of her son, the creatures, anything. She ran to his favorite tree, a big old olive tree in a hidden glen near the house, and fell to her knees in grief. A scream tore through her throat as she cradled her sons bracelets, so like the ones on her own forearms yet made for a child. Her own were a shining gold and his were normally a striking silver, but this was not the case now. His looked different.
They were covered in blood.
The other Amazonian women lowered their heads in respect, as Diana's cries echoed over the island. Dawn breached the surface of the red stained waters near Themyscira, and all was silent but their princess, as she grieved her dead Prince.
Diana's mind was far away lost in these thoughts, as she absently flipped through the file looking at the stats on Superboy.
Age:16
*its been ten years since you lost him. Orion was six*
Eye color: blue
*Superboys eyes are the same shade as mine, as his*
"No," she said aloud, breaking the silence and pushing the file away, coming back to the board room, dismissing the small bloom of hope that was flowering in her heart. "There's no way he's mine,"
"Well whether he's yours or not he's here with your DNA. So," Jameson trailed off once more and Dinah looked to her friend, worry clouding her anger.
"Diana, what's wrong," the Princess just shook her head and blinked twice, staving off the watering of her eyes.
"I don't- I. He's not mine. He. Can't. Be," a note of desperation had entered her voice, the cogs of her brain span wildly
*never actually found a body. Just blood. He's the same age, same eye color. He even looks like Orion did!*
"What is it?" Bats asked and Diana let out a few short breaths, just absently shaking her head.
"It's not possible,"
"Diana, what is it?" Clark demanded in a harsh tone that snapped Wonder Woman out of her pseudo trance. She looked at the other four people in the room and sighed, explaining the worst night of her life.
"So," Dinah said, once Diana had finished her tale, "Conner could be yours. Biologically anyway," Diana nodded keeping her eyes firmly shut, obviously far away mentally.
Jameson squirmed a bit in his seat, uncomfortable with this amount of emotion.
"Well just because Conner is related to you doesn't mean that he and Orion are the same. It could be a similar situation, like with Superman, where Cadmus stole your DNA and made a clone. Do you know if it was the G-nomes that attacked Themyscira?" Diana opened her eyes, head shaking.
"No. I never actually saw the G-nomes when they liberated Superboy from Cadmus. I was busy trying to take care of Blockbuster," Batman walked over to the holo-computer and pulled up a picture of each G-nome sub species. Diana's eyes widened, horrified, and she placed her head in her hands.
"Judging by that, I'd say they were," Jameson was still bristled and shuffled his papers, awkward in such a personal setting.
"When I saw the blood and I couldn't find him. I thought- oh gods- I thought," Diana could hardly be heard as she muttered to herself through her hands , "I've had ten years to accept that my son was dead and now this?"
"Um, if you want me to I could look at Superboy's DNA and compare it to Orion's? See if they match up. That is, if you have anything that still has his DNA. If Conner and Orion are one then their DNA would match perfectly. Well, besides the Kryptonian bits. Superboy's DNA is currently spliced between three people- you, superman, and a donor who I couldn't find," Diana looked up her eyes hard and strongly unforgiving. She was hurt deeply and past scars were bleeding fresh wounds. She needed to protect herself right now.
"I'll bring in something of his and see if you can find anything," Batman looked at Jameson and nodded at the door. The young man quickly took the hint and exited, shutting the door behind him.
"Who was Orion's father?" Canary asked carefully gauging Diana's reaction.
"It doesn't matter, he was a mortal and he's dead now. He was no one important,"
"We will need to launch another inspection of Cadmus. Obviously things are being hidden from us about the G-nomes. As for Superboy... How you deal with that is up to you," Batman stood up and wearily looked at the clock. 10:30. His little Robin would be at the cave by now for game night, but expecting a call soon. "I think that we can conclude this meeting. I'm going to go home, I suggest you all do the same," Batman left the room. Superman and Black Canary went up again to face off so Diana slipped out of the room, catching up to Bruce.
"So, why did you let them fight? Also why are you letting them fight now?" Her friend sighed and stopped to explain. Since they were the only people in this section of the watchtower, he felt okay to use their first names.
"Clark refuses to even look at the boy for long periods of time. Dinah has taken him in. For most instances, she has become his mother. She can't help but feel personal when it comes to the boy, because it is personal. She asked me about how it was when I first adopted Robin," Diana reeled back from this observation.
"She wants to adopt Superboy?" Batman nodded
"Keep this quiet. She hasn't even talked to him about it," Diana nodded, and they both heard the others fighting had escalated to shouts.
"I just hope that they can work together on missions," Diana said, and Batman started walking again.
"That's why I've been trying to keep them separate. Are you staying?" Diana nodded, leaning against the doorway.
"I have to talk to Canary. We can talk more tomorrow," Batman departed walking towards the Zeta Tubes, while Diana listened to the heated argument from outside the door. It was garbled speech, but the message was clear enough. Neither party was happy with the other. After some more shouting, Clark burst out of the room and strode off muttering angrily under his breath, not noticing Diana whatsoever.
The brunette slipped back into the meeting room, where Dinah was currently pacing the room. She looked up and stopped moving, observing Diana.
"I'll assume that conversation did not go how either of you wished?" Dinah blew her bangs out of her face, then sat across from her friend.
"No, not really. Hopefully this one goes better. What are you planning to do about Superboy?" Diana honestly should have expected this, but still reeled in shock.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean what are you going to do if he isn't your boy? What are you going to do if he just happens to have your DNA?" Diana kept quiet for a moment, settling her thoughts
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do- even if he is Orion. You would know better than the others, does he remember anything about me?" Canary shook her head, and Diana took the leap, "and you want to adopt him?"
Dinah looked up and sighed averting her gaze to the large windows, "I was thinking of it. I'm afraid I've become quite partial when it comes to the boy. He needed someone and I was there. I'm not sure even what *I'm* going to do if it turns out he's yours,"
"He wouldn't really be mine," Diana said without thinking, then hurried on noticing Dinah's evil eyes, "I mean you have taken care of him for the entire time he's been awake. Even if it turns out that he is Orion, he really still knows you best. Not that it matters but I think it would be good if you adopted him. He needs somebody,"
"Two is better than one. He really just wants someone to help him get better at what he does. I can handle the mushy mental emotional stuff, but I know how much he holds back when we train," Diana jumped at the opportunity.
"I could help train him!" The Canary smiled and stood up, glancing at her watch.
"I'll mention it to him tomorrow. I'll persuade him about it," Diana also stood and crossed over hugging her friend tightly. Dinah was stiff for a moment, but then returned it just as tightly. She put a hand on Diana's back.
"It'll be alright," she murmured softly to the other woman who nodded, her eyes burning uncomfortably all of a sudden. They broke away a minute or two later, and Diana's eyebrows furrowed.
"Have you told Ollie yet?"
"No," Dinah sighed picking up her forgotten jacket, "he's still upset about Roy," it was common knowledge amongst most of the league that Speedy- Red Arrow had moved out of Green Arrow's home and gotten his own apartment. Only the closest to Ollie knew he was still very much broken up over it. Even though it had been coming for a long time, things had been so tense between them in the past few years.
"I understand. Who knows maybe Superboy will be a welcome distraction? He reminds me a lot of Roy though," Diana watched Dinah's eyes float to forgotten memories.
"He is. They both have a serious problem with authority for sure, but Co- Superboy and Roy also share their "big brother complex". He really cares about his team he just doesn't know any emotions yet,"
"Does Superboy already have a civilian identity?" Dinah bit at her lip, nodding.
"Don't tell him I told you. Only address him as Superboy, but his civilian is Conner. Conner Lance," Diana broke into a knowing grin.
"Lance? And you say you aren't his momma," they began walking towards the Zeta beams together. Diana began asking questions about the boy, clutching his file in her hands. She hung on to her friend's every word and imagined each scenario. He had just become the most interesting person in the world to her.
Okay doves so another chapters out! What will happen next? Only the writer knows! Let's just say Cadmus has a lot to explain and they will be seeing CONNER soon! Stay tuned and please review it fills my heart with happiness and makes me write faster!
cheers !