S/N: The showdown that's been expected well see for yourself...

Kasnia is a different place these days with the tensions between factions reaching a breaking point. Talia remains in hiding with the less than reputable associates of Savage, but Savage also had contacts within Faraday's organization. They were the ones to alert the Outsiders to her relative location. The accelerated pregnancy only meant she would come to term ahead of what is scientifically and biologically accepted to be the term. Savage never once made direct contact to her; he always had his middlemen do it just to avoid anyone knowing he aided her escape. She wonders why he would risk anything even as an immortal, but he did have a bargaining chip with her and with Kal-El, he knew more about her pregnancy than he let on and of course he engineered the new weakness for the Kryptonian.

He had told her father anti-kryptonite, but in reality, he tells her it is blue kryptonite because it would in the right dose overload his new powers thus making him vulnerable again, and if too high it would kill him out right. She suspects that it might come down to killing him because he had gone for the lack of a better word, insane or at least so far from the way he was before he killed Luthor that he would kill anyone though most of all he would kill Bruce Wayne. She could not allow that so all the more important to warn him, warn anyone close to him plus the political instabilities in Kasnia made it the 'ideal' hiding place.

She does however suspect her father would be paying very close attention to Bruce's movements if he is still tracking him as actively as possible though there are blind spots that technology cannot breach at all like Themyscira or Fate's Tower. There is a knock at the door, her 'bodyguards' escort to her to the underground route to the next safe house, this kind of thing had become regular, they only swore not to move her as she slept, but it would soon reach the point where they would have to break that call.

Elsewhere at the former royal household, the Invisible Jet has been parked there for some time now, but thanks to some advance planning and a little help, they are able to conceal it from watchful eyes in the sky. Audrey while distraught in recent years by many things including what happen with the Justice Lords, she saw something different about Diana now, probably a certain someone.

A certain tall, dark, and probably very handsome man under that cowl over there, how I almost envy you my friend, but back to the matter of that other woman.

"So what have you learned as of late?"

"We have limited resources, the military is split into many factions, civilians are in their own groups too, and so I have no real influence here anymore, I scrape out a quiet existence except if someone attacks this place though that too is rare."

"I guess we will have to do it the old fashion way."

"Just be careful out there, sure Wonder Woman is with you, but you are still mortal."

"I'm difficult to kill, and I have her with me."

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"It seems so written all over her face when she came in that first night you were both here."

"More than you know, but we have a job here."

"Then getting going before the trial goes cold or something."

He had been sent to find her, he wonders why he was entrusted with this mission, but of course the architect does not want the pieces shifting on their own, he must be the manipulator always. He would find her, she would resist, he might have to kill her to keep her quiet about the plan, and whatever she knows, the search continues. In the distance, he hears the familiar sound of a grappler; they must be looking for her too, not one, but maybe two or three within in a single attack. Kasnia's instabilities would cover it well so he continues walking along, the disguise had been working so far, but he had to take the time to learn the Kasnian language, which took awhile even when being able to speed read anything.

Half a world away, the infiltration team led by Fate and Sage works their way down into the interior. He could hear strange sounds the further down he went, he finally realizes that it is actually voices crying out. He starts to move faster yet as he does he draws unwanted attention from Cadmus soldiers. He curses himself for being seen in his worry that it might be someone being tortured, that someone being Helena. As the soldiers try to gang up on him, he tosses them one at a time, he was tired of being on the receiving end of this kind of fear and paranoia, but somehow it always came with the work, the job, or whatever one calls it.

As he bursts through the door ways at the end of the hall, there lies Oliver, Dinah, and Steel passed out from the hours of interrogation, he leaves them to be found by Fate. He had to find her, find Helena. The screams get louder, she is in pain, he body slams the guards outside the interrogation room, the interrogator was Flagg, the puppet would get his strings cut on the way to a gutter, but he almost hardly believes he just thought that..

Remember no compromise, get Helena.

He tackles Flagg who tosses him like a salad, but he gets up again hefting a blunt instrument that apparently been used to visually insist talking or chance breaking, but it would be the latter for Flagg with a ticked off Vic Sage. Flagg try to convey the notion that Sage is next, but the prospect ends as he falls unconscious to the floor after taking a head blow from a pipe. He unhooks the wires, cuts the straps, then lifts her off the titled table, and as she stirs, she smiles weakly.

"Time to go," he mumbles.

"Sure we won't miss the show?" she murmurs.

"Never miss a show, but I think you'll like the climax."

"Always love a good light show."

As they prepare to flee, more of Hardcastle's handpicked elite try to cut them off. Now would be a good time for…

Supergirl pummels the soldiers to cover their escape and with a mix of luck and skill they somehow escape the Arizona facility. Hardcastle is naturally again enraged and of course now the administrative/executive board demand to see him regarding the recent Cadmus 'failures' on his watch. He realizes it is a demotion or an outright discharge in his future, so instead he takes a third option, the one that of course is no better the others, but he had it with this affair and taking the heat for others' failures, not his. He would not live long enough to regret the decision anyway.

Hardcastle's staged demise is used as further provocation to go after the remaining Outsiders plus recapture the ones that escaped custody with Supergirl's help among others.

Somewhere in the Arizona desert, Fate opens a portal to the Tower and orders everyone to go through until he, Vic, and Helena are the last. Supergirl had carried Oliver and Dinah through just seconds ago. Steel had been helped through by Rayner and Lethe whereas J'onn remained at the Tower with the recovering Shayera as well as John Stewart who is there to meet the returning infiltration team.

"I take it we got everyone back."

"Right, only problem is that Cadmus is liable to up the ante and soon."

"More Ultimen?" quips Kara.

"Perhaps, but something else was going on in that facility besides the torture."

The attention turns to the situation in Kasnia where rolling city block fighting is drawing closer to the heart of the capital where Bruce and Diana are staying during the search for Talia.

"Wait who is that?"

Fate says something not understandable to anyone except Shayera. The broadcast suddenly grows sharper and closer to reveal the one person none of the present former Justice Lords ever wanted to see again. If he was there then Ra's already had suspicions about where to find his errant daughter.

"We have to warn them, help them."

"They requested to do this alone together, too many costumes converging on a single location, especially one affected as much as existing tensions as by other things will not help us."

Shayera grumbles, John fumes, and J'onn begins to reconsider Faraday's offer. He had been the most resistant to being allowed to have his abilities restored even as Fate had already been considering ways to allow Shayera to use Thanagarian technology again. It had never been fully explained to anyone except that her mace had ways to affect many things especially magic.

"At least warn them then."

"I'll pass a message to Faraday, and he can relay to Audrey somehow."

Meanwhile in Kasnia, Bruce and Diana in disguise gain access to the less than attractive hotel where Savage's associates were hiding out with Talia. Bruce converses regularly in Kasnian before learning of a woman named Aria Komarova, probably a fake name to cover her movements. As they head towards her room, another figure is advancing from the other direction. Bruce smirks before pulling Diana into an empty room with him and indicates that Ra's already sent someone after her, that someone being the one person they did not need to run into right now.

"He's closer than we are… well one of us might have to divert his attention."

"If he knows we are both here, he'll go after you."

"No need to whisper, I could hear you way before you saw me."

Kal slams Bruce through the floor just as Diana tries to get between them so instead she dives after them. She tries grabbing him by the neck in an effort to pull him away from strangling Bruce. He pushes her full force into the wall then spins to make a micro twister to whirl her away from him. Bruce uses the opening to kick him square in the chest, which does stun Kal a little before the Kryptonian blows fire at him. He tosses off his ignited overcoat to reveal his concealed Bat suit underneath then pulls the cowl over his face.

"Same old Bruce, I won't miss either look, time for you to join your parents."

"What about your parents either here or on the destroyed Krypton?" retorts the Batman voice.

"Leave them out of this, they aren't mine anymore!" roars Kal.

"I don't believe that… you use the name Kal… you dishonor both worlds!"

"Quit messing with me."

He runs straight at Bruce at breakneck speed, but Batman fires off a grappler into the opening in the ceiling to barely sidestep the rush. Diana in turn uses his latest annoyance to double punch him from behind.

"You'll pay for that you treacherous…"

"You dare to call me that, I followed you out of some misguided loyalty to what seem like the right thing that is at least until we tried to duplicating it on another world."

"Their world is a mess, we had order, we had them following what we thought was best."

"The oldest mistake in the book is too much power is wrong, the Gods learned that the hard way in every corner of the world. Humanity like them still has much to learn, and you have forgotten a great deal including what you were when you first became the guardian of Metropolis."

"You dare to lecture me, you who gave up the Amazonian teachings to embrace the harsher tactics more common to warriors than to the pretentious nature of heroics!"

"You would kill us all because you believe we betrayed you, in your eyes, in some way we did, but we betrayed ourselves too by following, by doing what we did."

"Believe what you will, but you'll still die."

He starts landing blows left and right, but still she is only sore from the stress she is putting on her own, his blows are far less damaging. The thought occurs to him; somehow she is almost back to her level before we were depowered by that other Luthor. Somehow restored to her, but not all the way, but still she would die, then he would die after hearing her cry out his name for the last time.

"You are wasting your time, Ra's plan will succeed, and the world will change forever."

"Try as you may, but I'm not going to let that happen."

"It has already begun, the countdown is already started, and the only one that can stop it is not going to."

Upstairs Bruce faces Talia for the first time in several months and of course she could go into labor any day now. He orders her bodyguards to get her back to the palace, tell them that the princess sent them, which meant Diana, something Audrey would understand easily. As he hears her cries, he races back to the floor below.

"I knew you would come for her."

He is holding her by her hair, he breathes on it, it burns, she screams, Bruce races straight at him only for Kal to freeze his legs, and then advance forward to smash them. Diana ignores the fact that she lost a considerable amount of hair, it would grow back somehow, but for now she had to stop him. Kal relishing his seemingly despicable gestures fails to note Diana's boot connecting with his jaw as he hears a swooshing sound behind him. He is thrown clear through the wall then she picks him up using the lasso and proceeds to spin toss him clear across the city. They had to hurry if they were going to defrost his legs without breaking them.

The only problem now was the water mains in this section of the city are broken. She takes flight and keeps shouting at him to stay awake, it is getting cold he mumbles. She flies faster or tries to do so now. The palace is not far now, and fortunately she sees the perimeter detail leading Talia towards the palace inner gate. As she descends Talia runs towards them, very much worried about Bruce as well. The two women rush him inside and encounter Audrey who appears quite stunned until noticing Bruce's legs.

She leads them towards the nearest bathroom then attempts to crank up the heat as they settle him into the water. The temperature is raised gradually to avoid doing unnecessary damage to his body. He is not out of it yet, but he is still alive, Diana sighs, like she thought before hair grows back, legs are another story. She strips down and settles into the steamy bath water with her lover, who is still somewhat out of it from the frosting, and she won't leave him not until he wakes, until he says something, maybe not even then either.

"You took a very big, maybe unnecessary risk for me tonight," she whispers.

"Couldn't… let him… hurt you… his powers are back too!" he mumbles

"I have powers too," she says with a twinge of sadness in her voice.

"Still… have to…"

"Be still… we are alive… that's what matters."

He could not and would not disagree between the fading chill and the warmness of her body next to his. As for Talia, she finally understood why Bruce chose Diana because Bruce would die for her, because Bruce loves her. Talia knew Bruce loved her once, but that was another time, after all man or woman, some people have to learn some time when to walk away because some things will just never work out. She relays what Savage told her to Faraday's contacts and they relay it to him. It just might be the first advantage they have had in this showdown, but of course between the fearless toxin being released in prisons worldwide, things just went up another notch.

As for the child, her love now belongs to the child now. The countdown continues even as she begins going into labor prematurely compelling Audrey to rush her to the medical level.

A/N 1: Kasnia, for those familiar with the DCAU, you know the place, especially for the second encounter with Vandal Savage. Also for some of those rather cute and charming Bruce and Diana moments inside the palace as well as earlier in Paris. Especially where he reveals he knows how to speak Kasnian, love that scene.

A/N 2: The three battle at last... the result kind of speaks for itself... I basically keep pushing Kal further into the realm of being somewhat sadistic and deep denial... essentially its making him as unlike what Superman was or what Clark was... of course they remind him of that, which makes him even angrier... the fight represents what each knew could happen...

A/N 3: Shayera and J'onn might get their abilities back... there's of course hesitation on their part still. The Arizona facility has its share of twistedness and of course I did reverse Vic and Helena from the situation that happens in the JLU episodes Question Authority and Flashpoint. He is now the one that breaks her out and in his own way is very aggravated by what happen there. As for Hardcastle, he gets a fate similar to his League reality counterpart leaving Eiling to step up.