Chapter 2
Diana flew over the ocean as she thought about what she should do. She had left J'onn to pull a double shift on monitor duty and felt bad about it; even though she knew he would think nothing of it. There wasn't much time left on her shift and she wondered if she should bother going back up there or stay on Earth and patrol.
She had flown around aimlessly thinking about her husband and daughter. The first thoughts she had about them was how weird it was she still called Bruce her husband and not her ex-husband. They had never called their marriage officially over; because that would mean they failed at it, and failure was something they both had trouble admitting to.
Diana didn't want to admit her marriage was over because she felt like a failure for not being able to stay with Bruce for their daughter's sake. Despite their separation, Helena turned out better then Diana could have ever hoped. While Diana had her worries about her daughter, she knew the girl could take care of herself just fine. Bruce was the one she had to worry about. He could be reckless and stupid. These were traits of his she failed to recognize when she first met him. When they first met she had an idyllic view of him because he was so starkly different from the view of men she had at that time.
Diana had been born twenty five hundred years earlier, the eldest child of the king and queen of a Greek city state. She had a sister, Donna, who was three years younger than her and a brother, Arias, who was five years younger than her. For the first eight years of her childhood her city lived in peace. It found itself at war due to the evil ambitions of a pathetic little man who wished to rule all of Greece. The ambitions of this man were fueled by Ares, the God of War, who enjoyed seeing the mortals fight with hatred and die in violence. When his army approached Diana's city her father raised an army composed of every able bodied man in the city.
Her mother, Hippolyta, prayed to the gods to help their army and save them from the invading force. None of them listened as their army was soundly defeated; with Diana's father killed when he tried to surrender. As the invading force marched on the city to enjoy the spoils of war, Diana's mother made one last plea to the gods. This time, Aphrodite listened. She offered herself to Ares in exchange for the city being left alone. He relented and commanded his puppet king to halt. The king did so, but made one request; he wanted every male in the city handed over to him. To the queen, this request was puzzling, as only the young, old, and infirmed were left. The king understood the gods better than she did, and knew one day the truce between Ares and Aphrodite would fall apart. When it did he knew a city with no males would easily be defeated.
Even without knowing what the king was up to, the queen refused the request, but her father stepped forward and accepted it. He told the other old and feeble males it was there duty to sacrifice themselves for the good of their wives and daughters. What he told them was a lie. He knew the king was really after the young boys who would one day grow into warriors. He realized handing them over to the king was the only thing preventing them from being slaughtered on the spot. Under his urging, everyone relented. Diana couldn't, though. She held on to her brother so he wouldn't be taken. He was ripped out of her arms and carried away. She ran after the soldier who had him, pleading with him to give him back as she cried harder than she ever had in her life. Her mother grabbed her and stopped her from running after the soldier.
The surrender of all the men of the city scarred the women in ways they could never begin to comprehend. They came up with countless rationalizations for why it was the right thing to hand over all their men and boys. Many of their rationalizations involved the inherent depravity and warrior nature of males.
The women left behind had to take over the jobs the males had done. The adults took over the jobs that had been done by their husbands and sons. Meanwhile, the young among them were told by the queen to prepare for the day when the agreement the puppet of Ares made would be forgotten and tossed aside. She belatedly realized he would be back to conquer them completely one day, as that was what men of his ilk were determined to do.
The women knew little about fighting. All they knew about fighting techniques came from watching the men. What they did know, however, was how to raise soldiers. They started raising their girls with the same expectations and discipline that their brothers had been given. They were made to fend for themselves at times. They sparred daily, fighting with an intensity few men of Greece could match. They learned fighting techniques through trial and error. As the years passed, their skills became honed. They became one of the finest fighting forces in all of the land.
Fifteen years after the Army of Ares had left, their scouts spotted them returning. When the queen heard the news she held a tournament among the warriors to select a champion who would lead them into battle. Diana won the tournament and was appointed general of the forces.
The battle with the invading force was fierce. Many of the women were shocked to find themselves facing off against their brothers and former childhood friends. The women seemed less fazed by this then the men themselves.
Diana was the most ferocious fighter of them all. She tore down one wave of soldiers after another. She was unfazed until she found herself faced off against her brother. He was unfazed by the fact he was going up against his sister and attacked her with all his strength. She held her own against him and soon was able to subdue him and knock his sword out of his hand. She had mercy on him and let him run away to safety.
They repelled the invasion, but found little to celebrate. Diana found out her sister had been killed in the battle. She cursed her brother and all the old friends of hers who fought against them. She had refrained from seeing men in the same way the others had come to, but her attitude was beginning to change.
Ares was furious at Aphrodite for what had transpired. He believed she had given the women some kind of power behind his back. Of course, the fact that his minions had disobeyed the agreement didn't matter to him at all. He was determined to see the city destroyed and every woman killed. He decided to lead the army himself, and took a mortal form for a day in order to do so. With him at its head the army attacked again and this time was much more successful. The ferocity was enormous on both sides and one warrior after another fell.
This time both sides ended up slaughtered, including Diana's brother. In the end, only she and Ares were left. The two of them squared off and Diana bested him. Just as she was about to kill him he made a plea to Zeus to save his life. The hand of Zeus stopped Diana. While he did not want Ares killed, he was still very angry at him for the way he had played with the mortals. Ares was imprisoned. Meanwhile, the women of Diana's city were given their lives back and were given a home where they would never be bothered by the wars of men.
The island they were given was the paradise of the gods. The Amazons, as they now called themselves, would dub it Themyscira, after the city they had all grown up in. Hippolyta kept the crown of queen.
Zeus felt like he owed much to the Amazons for the suffering they endured at the hands of Ares. Since they had all experienced the horrors of death already, he made them immortal. While old age and disease wouldn't kill them, they could still die by injury. However, that was rendered improbable by the super strength and the near invulnerability he granted them.
Despite the fact she did not experience death, Diana was granted immortality as well. This was done as she was given the role of the protector of the island. Besides being granted immortality, super strength, and near invulnerability; Diana was also granted super agility and flight by the gods. They also gave her several magic items such as the Lasso of Truth and indestructible bracelets. Finally, she was given a special physical connection to the island that would allow her to heal whenever she became injured.
For over two millennia, the Amazons lived in isolation from the rest of the world. They had a mirror that allowed them to see the events of the world of men. They saw the constant war men engaged in, and every day they were glad they were no longer part of that world.
For most of their history, they were undisturbed. Everything changed one day when a plane crashed on the beach. As protector of the island, Diana was the first to inspect the crash site. She found the plane's female pilot near death. Diana didn't know what to say to her, so she simply asked the woman to explain what she was doing. She told Diana she was transporting the bomber so it could aide her country in the war it was currently fighting. Diana asked her to tell her a little about the war and she began to tell Diana about the evil that they were fighting.
When the woman died, Diana felt an urge to do something about the war. The pilot had described to her a war unlike any other, and Diana knew a lot of innocent people were being harmed in it. She knew with the gifts the gods had given her she could go out and do a lot of good. She took this idea to her mother, who refused to give her permission. She pointed out Diana would not be successful. She believed many of the people Diana would try to help would be distrustful of her.
Dejected, Diana went back to the plane to see if there was anything she could find that would help her identify herself as a friend to those she wished to help. She found a flag for the nation the woman served. She presented the idea to her mother that if she could make a costume out of it; she would be seen as a friend of that nation and would be trusted. Her mother liked the idea, and let her go out into man's world to help the innocent civilians once she had made the costume.
For several years Diana worked to save any innocent civilians who found themselves in the path of war. She was forbidden from doing anything more than saving those in immediate danger. She didn't mind the restriction, as she had no desire to fight someone else's war.
When the war ended, she stayed grounded on Themyscira. She was pleased to see that the world around them remained relatively peaceful. There were no full blown wars, but she was troubled by a new development she started witnessing. She saw wars, but instead of being fought by one army against another they were fought by lone individuals against unarmed citizens. In man's world this new form of war was called terrorism.
One day she was looking at the mirror and saw a ship had been hijacked by terrorists. The ship was nearby and she thought she could help the innocents aboard. She could no longer sit by and just watch.
She grabbed her old costume and put it on. When she flew out to the ship she was shocked to find one of the passengers was in the middle of taking out the terrorists himself. She offered him her assistance and he told her to take out the terrorists on deck while he went below deck to defuse the bomb they had.
While Diana was impressed by the man's abilities, her old biases prevented her from believing he could do much more than fight. She told him she would take care of the bomb and headed below deck before he could do anything. She found the bomb and thought she could carry it away to safety, but the second she picked it up, the thing blew.
The blast was so powerful it tore the ship in two. Diana was thrown a great distance from it. When she righted herself and looked down she could see that most of the passengers were safe as they had abandoned the ship on lifeboats when the man started fighting the terrorists. She was worried about that man, as he would have been stuck on board.
She found him floating in the water, clinging to a piece of debris. He was weak and injured, but not close to death at all. She took him back to Themyscira so he could heal there. She had to keep him hidden, of course, as no men were allowed to set foot on the island.
She found out much about the man as she nursed him back to health. She found out his name was Bruce, and that he was on a quest to turn himself into a hero. He told her all the plans he had for eradicating crime in his hometown. She was impressed by his resolve. He became the first man in over two millennia to earn her genuine respect. When he was healthy, she took him back to man's world and told him if he ever needed her help, she would give it without question.
She had a feeling he would one day take her up on the offer. Several years after he left, a plane shaped like a bat appeared in the sky. She knew immediately it was Bruce. All the other Amazons saw it as well, and they all rushed to the landing site. Bruce was dressed as Batman, but took his cowl off so Diana could see it was him. The others were furious a man was invading their space, but Bruce was unfazed by it. He ignored the others and spoke directly to her. He told her a year before; he had allied with another super powered being and had worked with him on several occasions. They were now facing a dire threat as there were three super villains with the same power as this Superman. They had this Superman and his sister to face off against them, but they needed Diana to even the odds. She didn't hesitate to leave the island and help him.
The heroes were successful, and the whole world came to love and respect the three of them and their sidekicks. Diana wished to spend more time in man's world, and operated as a full time super hero. She worked closely with both Bruce and Clark, as she needed them to teach her about man's world. She ended up working with Bruce more than Clark as he would often need super powered help.
Working with Bruce, Diana found herself deveoping feelings for him. She was confused by them, as she had never felt romantic love like that before. They each made small steps to form a relationship that finally blossomed when Dick set out on his own and Bruce was looking for more companionship.
Diana and Bruce had not been together for long when he took in a new Robin. She knew Jason was likely trouble, but didn't say anything as she didn't want to interfere with Bruce and his personal super hero work. She took no solace in being right when Jason's recklessness got him killed. It was his death that motivated them to get married. They were both reminded that Bruce might not have too long on this Earth.
From the moment they got married, Diana had been angry with Bruce that he didn't learn the lessons from Jason's death she wanted him to. He was still reckless himself, despite being mortal and vulnerable. She thought the birth of their daughter would cause him to let up on the hero work. She thought he would want to make sure he would live to see their daughter grow. Diana was completely wrong, and she eventually left him as she couldn't stand to see him put himself in so much danger.
Diana suddenly noticed it was cold. She looked around to see ice all around her. While lost in thought, she had flown up north, near the pole. When she snapped out of her dreaming, she remembered she hadn't talked to J'onn and didn't want him to feel she was taking for granted the fact he would fill in for her. "J'onn, this is Diana. Do you need me to relieve you?" she asked.
"I'm okay," he replied. "I can cover the rest of your shift. You should just tend to your family."
Diana floated where she was for a while. She didn't leave Bruce and Helena on good terms, and it gnawed at her. She wanted to go back and spend some more time with them, but decided against it. She knew Superman's Fortress of Solitude wasn't far away, and decided to see if he was there.
Bruce watched the video from his cowl camera of the fight he had participated in that night. He watched it despite the fact he knew what it would show. It showed that he was slow and not nearly as strong as he used to be.
Bruce always found it weird to watch videos that gave a first person view. He had the video start at the beginning when Helena ripped open the roof of the warehouse. He saw the group of gangsters get closer as he fell to the floor. He had thrown Batarangs at the men with guns, but most of them had missed their mark. He could see Helena's Batarangs fly at their guns and slice them apart.
They both charged at the group in the center and when they reached them they started knocking them down. His initial punches landed strongly, but he tired quickly. The gang leaders were not good fighters and this aided him greatly. They failed to attach him all at once and this gave him the time to knock them out one at a time. It took a lot of punches to bring each one down.
Bruce listened closely to the sound and could hear Helena having much greater success. She soon came into his view as she joined him and took out three men at once. Bruce was tangling with one leader who was really putting up a fight. The camera caught Helena jumping chase after another leader. For the next several seconds the camera showed nothing but the face of Bruce's adversary as he laid punch after punch on his face. Bruce finally laid the knockout blow and the man fell to the ground. The camera view followed the man as he fell, but the sound of Helena screaming "Dad" forced him to look up. The camera caught Helena as she jumped in front of him and took the blasts from the gun that had been pointed them.
Bruce cringed as he watched what was on screen. He could hardly bare to keep his eye on it. The camera showed his hand firing a Batarang at the gun. When it hit the barrel it caused a huge explosion. Once the fireball from the explosion disappeared, everything was quiet. The only sound was Helena's whimpering as she lied on the ground in pain.
The view from the camera gave a clear view of Helena's injuries as Bruce had been shocked to move for a while after everything stopped. When Bruce saw his daughter's injuries once again he was horrified by what happened. He was even more horrified by the thought it had been his fault.
Helena appeared closer on camera as Bruce knelt down to tend to her. Bruce had to grip the arms of his chair as he looked at his daughter's burnt and blackened back. He heard himself ask her if she could make it to the Batwing. She nodded her head yes and he helped her to her feet.
Bruce pounded the stop button on the console and the screen went dark. He had to take a minute to catch his breath. The video had not been easy to watch.
Bruce kept thinking over and over how his invulnerable daughter had almost gotten killed trying to protect him. The thought kept running through his mind because he had trouble moving on to the fact she had needed to protect him because he was old and slow and could no longer do his job. As he thought about that fact, calm came over him. It was time for him to hang it up as the Batman.
Bruce thought back to his parents' death and the promise he had made to avenge them and to honor their memory by protecting Gotham. He had spent the next eighteen years of his life preparing to become a vigilante. He even traveled the globe to train better.
When he returned to Gotham he took up a superhero identity and started fighting crime. He soon found himself fighting the police as well, but once he took out the corrupt elements with the help of James Gordon, he earned a valuable ally. He would soon gain another ally when he took in Dick Grayson as his ward. It was not long before Dick would join him in his fight as his sidekick Robin.
Bruce had always thought he would have to fight alone, and it surprised him he was able to make the allies he did in Dick and Gordon. He soon thought about finding others who could aide him. On his journeys around the globe he had encountered two super powered beings, Clark and Diana. Bruce had come across Clark when they both helped villagers avoid the oncoming waters from a burst damn in China. Bruce had never gotten the man's name, but when he saw Superman he knew immediately it was this man.
Bruce had thought about tracking the man down and forming an alliance, but he didn't know how to do so. Fate would end up drawing the two men together. Bruce was investigating mob activity between Gotham and Metropolis. A reporter in Metropolis, Clark Kent, was doing a story on this mob's connections to the Mayor's office there. His wife, Lana Lang, was killed in an attempt to silence him. Bruce went to Metropolis and met this man as Batman to try and help him find the killers of his wife. Bruce would soon find out that Clark and Superman were one and the same. This would be the beginning of the long friendship between the two.
Bruce's time with Diana was something he thought about often. He had found her a strange, beautiful, and powerful woman. He always wondered if she would truly leave her home behind. He never went to fetch her as he knew she was unlikely to leave unless there was a good reason to. When Zod and his minions escaped from the Phantom Zone, Bruce knew they were going to need help. He retrieved her from the island and she helped them defeat the three.
Diana would stay in man's world as she saw the good she could do with Bruce and Clark. Bruce clicked with her as they shared a jaded view of the world. Diana was much more hopeful and optimistic, though.
Bruce's feelings for Diana had started when she nursed him back to health on Themyscira. He had always had trouble expressing how he felt about her. The two of them grew closer when they had to work together when a brainwashed Superman led an invasion of Earth. They suffered their greatest loss as Clark killed his sister, Kara, before he came out of the brainwashing. They tried to help Clark through his grieving, but found there was little they could say to him. The two of them found comfort in each other during that time, and started a relationship.
Another death would form the impetuous for them to get married. The death of Jason Todd drove Bruce to marry Diana. They were not married long before Diana found out she was pregnant. The news had led Bruce to experience a joy he had not believed was possible. He was going to have a family.
The loss of his parents had always made Bruce fearful to love. He had always worried about having children because he had always worried how he could honor his pledge to his parents and still be a father. He had also been worried about his children being hurt by his enemies.
One of the reasons he had been attracted to Diana was the fact she was nearly invulnerable. It made the relationship safe for him. He took comfort in the fact their child would have the same attribute. He thought he would never have to worry about her.
The day Helena was born was the same day that Clark died at the hands of Doomsday. Seeing his invulnerable friend dead had really shaken him. He was scared for his daughter now in the same manner he would have been for a normal child. The only thing that gave him comfort was the thought he could train her, and teach her so well no one would ever be able to hurt her or kill her.
Bruce had been able to see parts of Clark's fight with the monster. During the fight he was reminded of something he had noticed before; the super powered heroes didn't know how to fight properly. Heroes like Clark and Diana had been super powered most of their lives. They never faced too many adversaries who tested them physically. They never had the need to learn to fight that he did. Bruce wanted things to be different with Helena. He wanted to teach her all the techniques he knew. The only problem he had was he didn't know how he would be able to convince Helena her life would depend on how she trained. It had taken him years to learn everything he had and he knew no one else could learn the same things without the same commitment.
When Diana took Helena away from him, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It broke his heart to be separated from his daughter. When Helena was a child, he certainly didn't have the relationship with her he wanted. The two of them were awkward around each other. Despite their emotional distance, Helena always wanted to impress him. It was a desire that had grown out of their separation. When she finally came to live with him as a tween he took advantage of that desire. He pushed her to learn everything he had to teach her. She worked like none of his other sidekicks did. He was proud of her beyond belief.
It was time now for her to protect this city on her own. Bruce let out a long sigh of relief. He had done everything he could to protect the city himself, and now Helena was going to take over his pledge. In a way, she was the culmination of his life's work.
Clark stared at Kara in the crystal coffin. He was once again reminded of how much she looked like Sleeping Beauty in there. He looked at the Kryptonian numbers on the countdown clock; they said that she had six years until she was to wake.
When he had fought Doomsday, everyone believed he had died fighting the beast. It would turn out he had only entered a stage of hibernation. Bruce discovered his heart beat once a week. He pulled him out of his tomb and placed him under the glare of several sun lamps. Clark regained his strength and soon awoke.
After he awoke, they checked Kara to see if she was going through the same hibernation. It turned out she was, but since she was only half-Kryptonian, her hibernation would last much longer. Bruce calculated it out to 25 years.
Clark walked closer to the coffin and took a good look at his sister's face. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping and would wake up any moment. She looked just like their mother, right after she died.
Clark's mother died when he was ten years old. Shortly before the destruction of Krypton, she had found out she was terminally ill. In preparing for her coming death, she sought a reunion with her estranged husband, Jor-El, who she had separated from after he had ruined his career by erroneously claiming Krypton was going to be destroyed. When she told him about her illness he insisted that he could save her. He knew of a world she could go to where the sun would make her so strong the illness would not be able to kill her. Interstellar travel had been banned by the government, but the two of them took the risk and built a ship that could carry her to the planet called Earth. The day she left explosions started rocking Krypton. It was then that Jor-El revealed that he had been right about Krypton's destruction, he was just wrong about the date. The ship was to save her from the planet's destruction as well as her illness. She begged him to come with her, but he insisted he needed to stay behind and control the ship's launch. She blasted off from Krypton as the planet was destroyed around her.
His mother made it safely to Earth and crashed on the farm of Jonathan Kent. He took her in and kept her safe and hidden. While she was grateful for his hospitality, she planned to leave the moment she felt stronger and acclimated enough to Earth to live on her own. As she stayed with Jonathon she started developing feelings for him. When she discovered she was pregnant with Jor-El's child, she knew she could not raise it on her own on a planet strange to her. She told Jonathan her feelings for him and asked him if she could stay with him. He responded by proposing to her.
The yellow sun never quite had the healing powers for her that Jor-El believed they would. While the disease couldn't kill her, it did weaken her enough that she never developed the powers she would have had she been healthy. She never knew how much time she had left, but she knew the sun was not likely to keep her alive as long as Jor-El had hoped. After Clark was born she spent every day with him as if it was her last. As he grew she did what she could to teach him to use his developing powers.
Lara was never as concerned with teaching her son how to physically use his powers as much as she tried to teach him the responsibility of those powers. She tried to instill in him virtues that would make him a hero. She always saw that he would be an important symbol for the world.
Lara always felt sorrow over the fact Clark would be alone in the world. She knew he could keep a life as a civilian, but as a hero she thought he would always be alone. She never foresaw Bruce, or Diana, or any of the others who would be inspired to become a superhero because of him. She also never foresaw that she would have another child.
Lara had thought her Kryptonian genetics would not be compatible with Jonathan's human DNA, but somehow when Clark was ten years old she found herself pregnant with another child. She and Jon were overjoyed at the news, as was Clark. Lara was relieved her son would not be alone.
The pregnancy took a toll on Lara, during it her illness came roaring back strong. Giving birth pushed her health over the edge, and shortly after Kara was born it became obvious she was going to die. As she died, she gave Clark a message about the kind of hero he could become. She also commanded him to watch over his sister and train her the way she had trained him. She made him promise to keep her safe. It was a promise he had not been able to keep.
Two decades ago Darkseid, the brutal authoritarian leader of the planet Apokolips from another dimension, kidnapped and brainwashed him. He made Clark believe he was Darkseid's son. Darkseid had him lead an invasion of Earth. He thought with Superman leading his army the superheroes of Earth would not dare oppose him. He was wrong, the superheroes fought his armies and did their best to make Clark realize who he really was. None of them were able to get close to him to try and speak to him at all. All accept one, his sister, Supergirl. When she reached him she tried to talk to him and make him realize who he was. Flashes of who he really was started coming to him, and he believed she was using telepathy on him. In order to make it stop he hit her with all his might. After the blow, Kara laid on the ground and looked at him with sorrow on her face. Before she took her last breath she whispered "Clark" and then fell dead. In looking at the dead girl before him something seemed familiar. A memory started pushing its way forward in his mind and he soon found himself reliving his mother's death. He remembered the promise he had made to her, and when he realized he had broken it he was filled with a rage he never knew he was capable of possessing. He sought out Darkseid and tore him limb from limb in a matter of seconds.
Seeing their god, Darkseid, torn apart by Superman so easily struck so much fear into his armies they fled as quickly as they could. Clark almost gave up the superhero life, but was convinced otherwise by Bruce and Diana. The Justice League was formed from the ashes of the invasion, so the superheroes of Earth would be able to help each other and hopefully prevent the kind of thing that happened to Clark. Meanwhile, his sister was given a hero's burial and a shrine was set up for her and all the other superheroes that died in the invasion.
He put his hand against the crystal, hoping to feel something. He could just barely feel the heat emanating from the body. It was slightly stronger than it had been the previous week. He smiled at the progress she was making.
Clark slowly floated back down the hallway in the direction of the main hall. He wondered what Kara would think when she woke. He wondered if she would be scared of him after what he had done to her.
He reached the main hall and floated over the large crystal platforms that dotted the room. He landed on the ledge that contained the console to the Jor-El computer. He looked behind it at the back wall and took in the dual statues of his mother and father holding a globe of Krypton.
When his father built the spaceship for his mother, he included a crystal for building this fortress. Jor-El thought his mother would need to build her own home. He never foresaw her taking up with his adoptive father.
The fortress was meant to replicate the old crystal architecture of Krypton. It was a technology that had nearly been forgotten, but Jor-El learned about it as he saw it as the best technology for keeping Krypton alive in some form.
The fortress included an AI program that had the personality of his father. It contained all the information from Krypton his father had been able to access. The computer, along with the crystal technology, made the Fortress the perfect base for a superhero.
The Jor-El computer alerted him to the fact it had detected Wonder Woman entering. The fortress had multiple defenses against intruders, but it was programmed to recognize Bruce and Diana and not attack them. Wonder Woman flew into the hall and seemed shocked to find Clark.
"I shouldn't have come here," she said to him. "I was just in the area and thought-I should go." She began to float away.
"Diana!" Clark called after her. She stopped. "It's okay for you to stay. You obviously had some reason for coming here."
"Actually I didn't," she said as she floated back. "I was in the area and thought I would stop by to see if you were here." She made it to the ledge and slowly dropped to down to land on it.
Clark could tell she had something on her mind. She was looking straight down at the ground. She looked unsure of herself at the moment. He knew she had something to talk about.
"What were you doing in the area?" he asked. "I can't imagine there was any super villain activity I didn't know about."
She kept her head down with her hair falling over her face. Despite that, he could see her smirk ever so slightly. "I was up here because I was flying around aimlessly."
"Did something happen tonight that put you in a fog?" he asked. He had a good idea Diana's answer was going to involve one of two people.
"Yeah, it was Helena. Bruce actually. Correct that, it was both of them." Her voice was heavy as she talked.
"I haven't been plugged into the League news tonight," Clark confessed. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Helena was injured tonight," Diana said through a sigh. "It was real bad. She was hit with an Apokolips style weapon multiple times. I didn't get the whole story, but I know it happened because she was trying to protect her father. He needs to retire. He can't be putting our daughter in that position every night."
Clark knew how Bruce's need to retire was a sore point in their family. He had to admit that it was hard for him to consider it himself. Bruce had been an inspiration to Clark from the very first time they met. He thought that if a normal man like Bruce could be a hero, so could he. It was Bruce that drove Clark and Diana when they started working together. They never would have become the heroes they were now if it wasn't for Bruce. It was hard for them to think he would no longer be there to push them.
"Did you talk to him tonight about it?" he asked.
"No," she answered simply.
"Are you planning on talking to him about it?"
Diana let out another loud sigh. "I completely chickened out about saying anything to him. My daughter even called me out on it. I've been leaving it up to her to do something, and it has been totally unfair to her. I've asked that girl to bare more than she ever should have. I've asked that girl to protect her father, something that should have been my duty."
Clark knew all about Bruce and Diana's complicated relationship; he was a witness to all of it. The two loved each other, but hadn't quite been able to make it work. The biggest shame of it all was the position they often put their daughter in.
Despite her less than perfect upbringing, Helena had grown into the almost perfect superhero. It was what everyone had expected when they found out the two were going to have a child. Clark was ecstatic for his friends when he heard the news. When he woke from his death his first request was to see Helena. Bruce and Diana proudly showed her off to him. They also asked him to be her godfather. He was more than happy to accept.
At that time Clark owed Bruce and Diana a debt he could never repay. They had stood by him after the episode with Darkseid, and done everything they could to bring the rest of the world over to his side. The two of them formed the Justice League to show the rest of the world every super hero believed in him. There were still a lot of skeptics out there, but they all disappeared after his sacrifice in killing Doomsday.
"Perhaps, perhaps I could say something to him?" Clark suggested.
Diana looked over at him. Clark could see the sadness in her eyes. "You are so close to all of us, and we consider you and Lois a member of the family. With that said, it should be either me or Helena who tells him he needs to hang it up."
Clark suddenly remembered something. "I'm set to cover the charity fashion show Helena is going to be in tomorrow. Maybe I could talk to her. Maybe I could find out exactly what she is thinking about her father. Perhaps we could find a way to break the news to Bruce correctly."
A smile appeared on Diana's face. "Thank you," she said to him.