Diana loved Themyscira, as long as she lived this would always feel like home. She landed on the beach, where no one was around. Deciding to take the scenic route to her mothers apartments, she hovered slowly not far above the ground. Once she got into the heart of the city she was greeted happily by many of her sisters. Word traveled so quickly on Themyscira so it wouldn't take long for her mother to know she had arrived. While flying through a commerce area, she noticed a small cart full of linens and fabrics, that's where she would stop to get the material for her new clothes.

"Diana! You're back!" She heard a voice say. She would recognize that voice anywhere, the fact that it came from above her just added to the obvious. It was her sister Donna, she was with Kara flying high in the sky when they saw her and decided to drop in. When Kara was brought to the island last year, she and Donna became fast friends. Since Diana wasn't around anymore, Donna glad there was another on the island with super powers. She also liked the fact that she and Kara were pretty evenly matched in strength and speed. Where Diana took every type of competition seriously, and dominated her in every way, Kara was much more relaxed about everything. That was much more Donna's style.

"Yes. I came to see mother. Do you know if she's busy?" Diana said, while hugging her sister.

"Not that I know of. I haven't seen her since this morning, she didn't say anything about being particularly busy today."

"How's Clark?" Kara asked.

"He's very good. He says hello to you, Kara."

"Who is Clark?" Donna asked them both.

"Kal." Diana simply said.

"My cousin, you know, Superman?"

"Oh, that's right. You did say that was his name." Donna said to Kara.

"Yeah I definitely did. He's the only guy I've ever talked about. He's literally the only person I know."

"It is good to see you again Donna, and Kara you as well, but I must find mother."

With that, Diana lifted off towards the palace where the queen lived. She had to hurry as she was getting nervous, she wanted to make sure she wouldn't lose the courage to tell her mother about the things that have happened.

Queen Hippolyta sat on a bench on the balcony of her bedroom, next to Diana. She was pleased with the Diana's report of the happenings in the outside world. There had been no attacks from malicious forces for months. Perhaps the world isn't full of evil after all, and Diana's mission the rid the world of it was beginning to work. She liked Diana's idea about other women wearing bracelets and tiaras as a symbol of strength, but wasn't quite clear on how they would be distributed. The complex economics of man's world weren't exactly straight forward.

"So what is your 'Justice League' doing while the world is at peace?" The queen asked after a long pause. Diana cringed at the way she said 'Justice League,' clearly she was still cynical about their team.

"Many of us are using this time for personal matters, I am using the time to try to understand the world better. I've adopted a secret identity and for the last few weeks have been living among the people."

"But you said that your image is everywhere. How are you able to do this? Aren't you flooded with people wanting to be near you?"

"It's actually been very easy, no one has recognized me, or if they have they haven't said anything."

"Do your colleagues know you are doing this?"

"Some of them do, many live this way themselves. They've always done it, they had their lives before they became heroes, and have had to find ways to balance them. I'm one of the few who doesn't keep secrets from the rest of the world. At least until now. In fact, Clark...Kal... I mean Superman has been very helpful in the process."

Her daughter's stammering wasn't lost to the queen. She never hesitated or stumbled to speak unless there was something she didn't want to tell and Superman was involved, that couldn't be good. Why does he always come up in their conversations?

"What is a clark or a kal? And what does Superman have to do with your living in secret?"

"Those are his names, Kal, actually Kal-El is his birth name, and Clark is his human name."

"Human name? You mean he lives among them as well?"

"Yes, he was raised as a human, it's the only life he knows, he's lived it his whole life, only a select few know that he is also Superman."

Hippolyta didn't like this at all, Diana had always said he was noble and honest. "How could you be so blind? If he's been lying to the world what makes you think he won't lie to you?"

"He's never lied to me. He wouldn't do that."

"So the titan from the stars, sees himself as no more than a human man. He is a liar, he's been influenced by the descendants of our oppressors, he's no different than Heracles."

"He's nothing like Heracles! Do not compare him to that animal!" Diana jumped up and screamed. Anyone within earshot turned and looked, did the Princess just scream at the Queen? Even Diana was shocked, the anger came from nowhere.

"Why do you defend him so?" Hippolyta was shocked. But she would not be intimidated. She stood herself and looked Diana directly in the eyes. How dare her daughter have the audacity to raise her voice to her? Over a man no less?

"I'm sorry. I should not have yelled at you." Diana turned away, and looked up at the sky, towards the setting sun.

"What is it about this man? You have told me over and over again that he is your friend, and now you raise your voice at me over him."

Diana sighed, she figured it couldn't get any worse. "I defend him because... He and I are in a relationship." She slowly turned back to gauge her mother's reaction.

Hippolyta simply grunted, Diana couldn't tell if her mother was more annoyed or disappointed. "So he is courting you?" She asked softly.

"Less formal than that, he is my boyfriend, and I am his girlfriend. We're dating." Courting was more involved than what they were doing, courting was more like being engaged, they hadn't discussed marriage as it wasn't in the stratosphere in either of their immediate future plans.

"How long has this been going on?"
"Several weeks."

"Have you been intimate with him?" Hippolyta asked carefully.

Diana had been mentally preparing herself for this question from the beginning, but that still didn't make it any less uncomfortable. "No."

"Good." The Queen was relieved. "Then you must sever your ties to him."

"What? Why?"

"You've said it yourself, he is the most powerful man of all. Men of that stature seek women, often many women, to satisfy them. If you will not, he will surely find another woman to keep his bed warm. Diana, must I remind you that the bedchamber is where the true monster reveals himself. You must not give him the opportunity to use your body as he sees fit. Let him have the silly women of Man's World, spare yourself of that fate."

"He would never do that, and besides, he can't be with a human woman. Not without hurting her anyway."

Based on the look on the queen's face, Diana figured she did more harm than good with her last statement. She had mishandled that entire exchange, her mother mistook everything she said. In reality she had only fleetingly thought of sleeping with Clark, but her mother wouldn't think so, not now.

"He would never do that?" Hippolyta scoffed. "How can you be sure? Heracles and his men came to us in peace, then turned on us. Is he really so different?"

"Yes, he is. He admitted it under the lasso of truth. And without the lasso forcing it from him, he's never spoken of intimacy with me in any way."

"So he hasn't tried to seduce you?"

"No."

"You would lay with him willingly?"

Diana paused. "I haven't decided yet."

Diana desperately wanted to end this conversation, as expected, it wasn't going well. She empathized with her mother's fear and pain, she wished she could help. In Man's World there were women who had dealt with the same things her mother had, she found that the psychological effects of a victim of sexual assault could be devastating. Her mother had dealt with that pain for 3,000 years, her view of relationships has been warped, perhaps irreparably. As Wonder Woman, Diana did everything she could to prevent that type of attack from happening. So did Clark and the rest of the League. No one should ever be victim to such evil.

"Of all the men in the world, why must you choose him?" Hippolyta softened a little, but not much.

"Because I trust him, more than any other man. Since I left Themyscira he has been my best friend and my greatest ally. We have fought side by side on many occasion, he won't allow any harm to come to me. Nor I him."

"You say he's more powerful than you. What will you do if he turns against you?"

"I can defeat him, I know his weakness."

"Diana, I do not approve of this."

"I know you don't. I did not come here to get your approval. I was simply telling you the truth."

Diana turned, and flew from the balcony. Her mother worried about Superman attacking her daughter. Diana couldn't help but think about a time when it was the other way around.

2 years ago

Together the two heroes landed the malfunctioning airplane. For the life of her she couldn't figure out why he was there. She was preventing the machine from falling and killing everyone inside when he flew in from the blue and essentially took over. She didn't need his help, she didn't want his help, and she definitely didn't want to speak with him.
"So you're Wonder Woman. They've been talking about you for weeks, I'm glad to finally meet you. I'm Superman." He said with a big smile on his face and extended his hand to her to shake.

How dare this this foul creature try to touch her! She smacked his hand away, punched him in the gut, and kicked him on the side of the head. Before he could even react she looped her lasso around him. He couldn't get out, but he struggled mightily. The men of this world weren't a threat to her, but this one was powerful, she had to be on guard.

"Demigod. Were you born of woman?" Demigods were known to have whimsical origins, perhaps she could glean a weakness in him.

"Yes?" He answered, he didn't want to, his response was oddly involuntary. "But I'm not a demigod."

"Silence! You will only speak when spoken to. What was the name given to you upon your birth?"

"Kal-El"

"Kal-El?" That wasn't the name of any god or demigod she knew. Perhaps he's one of the Bana's Egyptian gods. Either way he couldn't be trusted. "Why do you wish to put your filthy hands on me? Do you wish to force yourself upon body? I hope not for your sake, because I can assure you will not live long enough to do so!"

"No, I would never do anything to any woman against her will." The rope burned hot, it was is if his words were being forced from him. "But if you let me, I would make sweet love to you. Argh! That is not what I wanted to say."

Diana didn't know what make sweet love meant, but it was probably a euphemism for something cruel and foul. All men were the same, evil, and with only one thing on their mind. So she punched him, un looped him from the lasso and punched him repeatedly in the head.

She dominated the fight, he didn't try to strike her, he was on the defensive the whole time, this confused Diana. Why didn't he try to dominate her? Eventually, people came rushing up towards them. While he seemed to be trying desperately to get away she wouldn't let him. She picked him up and body slammed him, jumped on top and threw punch after punch at him.

"Stop!" Diana heard a voice say. "Don't hurt Superman!" The voice began cracking, and Diana turned to see a little girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old holding her mother's hand. She was in tears. Diana stood up slowly, looking around. There were men and women, old and young, surrounding them. But the girl's tears hurt Diana, a little sister was upset, and it was because of her. Without saying a word, she went straight up in the air, as fast as she could.

The next few weeks, the media was very hard on Wonder Woman, she was berated by almost every news outlet in the world for attacking Superman without provocation. She didn't understand why even the female broadcasters were so against her. Many thought she was another super villain who wanted Superman gone. But he did the unthinkable, he stood up for her. He did his best to convince them that their fight was nothing more than a misunderstanding. Eventually all was forgiven. He was a strange man, this Kal-El.

The whereabouts of any Amazon was often easy to figure out, at a young age Diana discovered that is she often didn't have to ask more than 6 of her sisters before she found someone who knew where to find who she was looking for. The 3rd person she asked knew where Donna was. Her formula still worked.

Donna was at the healing isle, being treated by Epione. Before she took off though, she felt like there were eyes on her from everywhere. That didn't make any sense.

When she got to the healing isle she found Donna laying on an examining table with a hand sized bruise on her right arm, that could only mean one thing. She had been training with Kara, only a punch from a Kryptonian could do that type of damage to Donna. When Donna saw her she jumped up.

"Ooooh! You are scandalous!"

"What?" Diana wondered.

"You and Superman!"

"I just told mother less than 5 minutes ago. How did you know that?" Did everyone else know too? Was that why everyone was staring at her silently when she was on her way to Donna.

"Kara overheard it, and told me."

"Where was Kara when she heard it?" Diana asked.

"We were doing combat training in the yard, she said she heard you and mother talking about Superman and that you were courting him. I think that's why she punched me so hard."

Diana always wondered how far away Clark could be and still hear what was going on, he would never give her a definitive answer, now she had an idea. "When I was on my way here everyone kept staring at me. Who else did you tell?"

"Nobody." Donna looked at the floor sheepishly. She knew Diana wasn't going to buy that, she didn't need her lasso to know when Donna was denying something. She was about to speak again when Epione walked in.

"Do you know too Epione?" Diana asked immediately.

"Yes I do Princess."

"I take it you don't approve as well?"

"It is not my place to approve or disapprove. But you know my feelings. My only concern is your safety."

"Were all men so evil?" Donna suddenly asked. "Did all of them have evil and brutality in their hearts? Diana says they all aren't so bad now."

"Tylemarchus." Epione said after a long pause.

"What?" Diana asked.

"Tylemarchus, he was another healer. We used to spend evenings conversing about the practice of medicine. Sometimes he challenged me, other times he accepted my methods. He used to visit me regularly, for many months. I never felt threatened by him, he never forced himself upon me. Gods, it must have been centuries since I last thought of him." Epione sighed, almost like it was painful to remember.

"So he wasn't one of the men who attacked with Heracles?" asked Donna.

"No. He was killed before that."

"He was your friend." Diana spoke up.

Epione sat silently, thinking. "Perhaps he was."

"It's like that with Kal and I. He's my friend, my best friend. In man's world, many believe the strongest relationships are built on friendship. Maybe ours could be. I just wish mother could understand that."

"I am not without reason." Hippolyta said walking through the door suddenly. She had been listening outside the door for several minutes. Arriving with the us of the Sandals of Hermes. "I am open to the possibility that men have changed in the centuries it's been since i last saw one. Perhaps your man has the nobility you speak of. Since you feel so strongly about this matter I will humor you. Diana, I will meet your suitor. When you next see him, inform him he is officially invited to Themyscira."

"Oh thank you mother!" Diana beamed.