To Save the World, Part 2: Act III

Circe had gone too far.

The thought was pristine, impossible to ignore, and the only thing that Diana needed to fuel her pursuit.

When Conner had moved to help stabilize the bridge, saving countless civilians and Starfleet personnel alike, Diana was actually relieved. His warnings - however unnecessary - about Kryptonian weaknesses to magic had never been far from her mind. While she still felt an almost subconscious thrum of hope that Jim was somehow, inexplicably, going to return to her, she could not be sure that Conner would enjoy the same blessing.

I will bring your son to you, Kal-El. She thought as she was forced to leave Conner behind, grappling with Circe into the skies. I promise you, no more lives will be lost today.

The crack of Conner's sonic boom had barely had time to fade before Circe had managed to worm her way out of Diana's grasp and take to the skies again. As much as she wanted to look back, to go help Conner, she knew that she had to trust he would do what he could, and that was all she'd ever ask of him.

Diana took off after Circe, easily catching up to her in spite of the volleys thrown her way. The witch-goddess had grown reckless, rattled by the emotional turmoil deep within. Even now, as she pursued her, Diana had to hope that there was some way she could reach Circe, to stop the madness. But, if not…. She would finish this today.

Right now.

Diana caught up to Circe and caught her ankle, yanking her down to meet her. Within moments, her fist connected with the sorceress's jaw. She shifted to level another blow with her other fist, but Circe was ready.

A shield of that same lavender energy that had plagued Diana appeared. Her next blow bounced off and sent a shock of pain through her, rattling through her bones straight up to her shoulder. She shook it off, pushing off of Circe just long enough to think of her next move.

In her fight against Vanessa, Diana had been constantly more and more drained. But, against Circe? They were evenly matched. Diana was the better fighter, but Circe was full of tricks. Diana felt more powerful than she ever had, but power was nothing if not wielded wisely.

She needed to ground her. Any fight in the sky would allow for infinite opportunities for both of them to recharge. If there was any hope that some part of Circe that had once been a mother, once been just a simple woman asking for her own place in the universe, someone Diana could reason with, then it would only show itself after she had been sorely and soundly beaten.

Yet, Circe would not have her wings clipped so easily.

Circe's mouth moved, forming the old words to create another ball of energy. She was relying on her old magic once more, less inclined to use the lightning bestowed upon her by the misguided worship of the Althean people.

Was she growing weaker? Or simply relying more on instinct?

Diana's bracelets barely had time to deflect the orbs of energy before Circe had summoned a weapon from thin air, the same blade of energy she had used on the bridge of the Enterprise. Unfortunately, no sooner than Diana thought to reach for her blade, she remembered that it was somewhere buried in the rubble of Starfleet Headquarters. Most likely, it had melted down, the sacred magic of Athena lost to her forever.

Your worshippers await, Diana. Make sure you're worthy of them.

Her mother's advice echoed through her mind, reminding her of why had returned to Man's World. She did not need Athena's blade. Not anymore.

Her bracelets clanged against the psionic blade, only deflecting the blows by the virtue of the magic held within their bearer. If Diana had not been an Olympian, she would have most assuredly lost one of her hands by now. She had to distract Circe, use her reckless temper against her. Only then would she get the upper hand.

"You are consumed with revenge against me, with an obsession to win the love of a god incapable of the sentiment - " Diana ground out as she pushed back against Circe's blade, locking the woman into a show of brute strength. As Circe tried desperately to make her blade touch Diana's flesh, the maneuver was blocked by another push from the goddess. Her bracelets gleamed with the brilliant white light of the gods as the lightning she wielded laced around her every limb.

"I have had enough of you!" Circe screamed in Diana's face, all thoughts of her master plan seemingly gone. Instead, her eyes were wild with hatred and mania. There would be no more reasoning with her. She was determined to win, no matter the cost.

She's determined to win…

The sudden realization that she now had a strategy for defeating Circe nearly caught her off-guard. With her true abilities in place, her role as guardian of Truth had given her a brief glimpse into Circe's psyche with ease. And in doing so, it had shown Diana the path to victory.

Let Circe win. Or at the least, think she had.

There was a very fine line between allowing oneself to lose in a sparring match and truly getting obliterated by the competition. If Diana pulled back too much, allowed herself to be too open, Circe could easily strike her with that perverted lightning and cause true damage. Gods were immortal and certainly invincible to most things, but… only a god could kill another god. And right now, Circe was close enough to being one that Diana didn't want to test the theory on herself.

Diana started small. She pivoted and pushed Circe's blade off to the side, kneeing the woman in the process before pressing the attack. The Amazon roared as she laid down blow after blow, striking any open weak point that Circe had exposed. She wanted to appear overconfident and unwieldy.

Circe took the bait.

As Diana pulled back for another blow, hesitating intentionally, Circe took the opportunity to summon the lavender lightning and threw a bolt against Diana.

The cry of pain wasn't for the sake of theatrics, either. It had truly hurt.

But, the dramatic fall as she started to drop out of the sky, watching for Circe to follow, that was all for show.

Diana tumbled head over heels until she was facing the ground, quickly assessing where they had flown off to. They were still near the bridge, having begun to circle back without realizing. She could see the now barren evacuation zone at the base of the bridge, and beyond it, the dwindling firestorm that Circe had apparently set off. And somewhere, down there among it all…

Jim…

Her heart suddenly ached, as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed it, then refused to let go. Something was happening on the ground. And it needed… her.

It was a distraction that Circe took advantage of, although she had no way of knowing that. While Diana found herself momentarily enraptured by some new aspect of her godliness, the sensation that something or someone needed her, specifically, she could barely make out a half-dozen people in Starfleet uniforms reaching that same Visitor's Center area. She knew it had to be the crew of the Enterprise.

Circe only saw that Diana wasn't recovering from the fall, and with a great cry, the witch-goddess unleashed her unholy power on Diana, lashing her with arc after arc of lightning.

Diana screamed, back arching and body seizing as she was struck, but she somehow kept her wits about her. As she neared the ground, she forced herself to turn and face Circe through the barrage, then grabbed her lasso.

With as much effort as she could muster, Diana threw the lasso, catching it around Circe's ankle and yanking. There was nothing either of them could do as gravity carried them the rest of the way.

Dirt and ash showered over them as they punched a hole into the ground, just feet away from where Circe had tried to kill the crew.

In Diana's plan, she had hoped to be more aware of her surroundings when she had grounded Circe. Unfortunately, she had to admit she was momentarily dazed, although she wasn't sure why. As she coughed dirt free from her mouth, trying to get up, she knew she wasn't hurt. It had been no different than countless sparring matches with Artemis. But, her head still spun. It must have been the sheer power Circe had expended. That dark perversion of the precious gift mortals gave to the gods. Circe didn't deserve it, and she couldn't control it. But, it still left a mark on Diana's bones.

Circe was on her feet first, only to pin Diana to the ground with a bolt of lightning. Cackling, the sorceress sent bolt after bolt against her, and each time, pain and sensation blossomed anew as Diana's senses were assaulted.

She had known there was a fine line, and she had unfortunately stepped over it.

Soon, Diana was breathless, unable to scream, only able to writhe and claw at the dirt in the hopes that she could find purchase and escape. In the crater, she was alone. Conner was on the bridge, saving lives. The crew… were they still safe? And Jim…. he…

"Circe!"

Diana knew the voice instantly. So did the sorceress.

The lightning ceased, and both enemy and ally turned towards the presence.

For a moment, time crawled as Diana took in the sight of James T. Kirk picking himself up off the ground, phaser in hand and bold intent in his eyes. His weapon was trained on the sorceress, the self-made goddess of Althea, but his eyes were on Diana. And his spirit…

His spirit was brighter than anything she had ever seen before.

"You shouldn't have threatened the people I love." Jim simply replied, then fired off a volley of phaser fire.

The first hit caught the sorceress in the shoulder, making her stagger. The rest she took to the chest, relatively uninjured but certainly shocked.

"You…" Circe breathed, clearly disbelieving. "I watched you die, little man. How dare you defy me!" She rose a hand, drawing more of her power from the sky as Diana made a move to stand.

"Cap'n, move!"

Diana felt a surge of hope and relief flow through her as the Chief Engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise and both his former and current colleagues came rushing through one of the decimated alleys. Jaylah, Chekov and himself all held phaser rifles with modifications that Diana hadn't seen before and they seemed ready to fire.

Without hesitation, Jim ducked out of the way and the trio opened fire on Circe.

The phaser bolts were like that of the Silver Swan, and as they hit Circe, each of them sent the sorceress reeling.

Volley after volley came at the dark goddess, and with each passing strike, her cries became less enraged and more pained. Finally, she fell back and collapsed to her knees, expression still a strange mixture of shock and anger.

"Hold your fire!" Diana shouted, holding her hand up to stop them. Without hesitation, the crew paused, then lowered the rifles as Diana took a step closer to her enemy. Only a god could kill another god… and Circe had exhausted all chances for redemption that Diana offered. Yet, it was not lost on her that had it not been for the faith and determination of Jim's crew, she might never have had the chance to finally put this to an end.

Circe gasped for air, a hand clutching her chest as she clearly struggled to understand what they had done. "What the hell…" She breathed, her voice both a gasp and a growl, as if the very shock she felt betrayed her fury.

"The Silver Swan's weapons were designed to suck chronitons from cells," Scotty remarked, clearly too satisfied with himself to care that he was giving Circe a reason to target him. "So that's why she injured Diana so badly. Figured it would work on you, too."

Circe leveled her enraged gaze on Chief Scott, slowly pulling herself to her feet. "Bacon, I think…" She hissed, a chuckle of sheer insanity escaping her lips. "You'd make good bacon, just like all of Odysseus's little crew… hickory smoked with a couple of eggs over easy..."

Circe had begun to lose touch with reality. It was time to end this.

"You will not harm them, Circe." Diana spoke, fists clenched at her sides as she stood to her full height. All eyes turned to her, including Circe's, as she took a deep breath and revealed just how little Circe's magic had really injured her. "I am the Goddess of Truth, and Earth is under my protection. You will leave this place, one way or the other."

"Never!" Circe cried, throwing her hands out as she attempted to weave another spell.

Diana closed her eyes for just a moment, recalling that sensation of openness and the explosion of power within her. She had pushed it back to the gentle buzz while fighting before, but now, she let herself feel everything.

More importantly, she let herself feel the truth in her new family, the people who had accepted her with no hesitation. She felt Uhura's faith, loving and sincere, that Diana was truly her sister now and that she would defend them. She felt Spock's confidence in her and Doctor McCoy's genuine relief that she was alive. She felt Jaylah's passion, Chekov's sheer joy at her presence, and Chief Scott's barely contained admiration.

And she felt Jim. He felt… more than confident. He felt… as if they were in sync. As if he believed in her with every breath.

She inhaled as he did, then felt the wind whip around her as she summoned that great power, the great birthright bestowed upon her by the gods.

Diana opened her eyes and held her hand up to the sky.

The clouds split open as Zeus's thunderbolt came to her hand and arced through her, filling every cell of her body.

The Goddess of Truth moved faster than Circe could react.

Her fists moved in a flurry, crunching bone underneath them as she connected with Circe's stomach. Then, as if in the same breath, she crouched down and swept the woman's feet out from under her and grabbed her ankle in one hand, using it to hurl her into the crater, back first and upside-down.

With a roar of power, Diana summoned the great bolt of thunder within every synapse and clashed her bracelets in front of her. The lightning rushed forward in a split-second. The witch barely had time to get her hand up, a feeble shield flickering to life before Diana's divine power reached her and shattered the magic protecting her. It did more than enough to injure the witch, given that she had not channeled nearly as much lightning back at her as Diana once had to vanquish Ares.

Dazed, Circe had only begun to slide down before Diana raced for her and grabbed her tunic, lifting her into the air. The two of them soared high into the sky as Diana felt the freedom and abandon of her power. Releasing Circe, she only did so in order to pull her lasso and lash it around the woman, pinning her hands to her sides and heading back towards the ground.

Landing, Diana yanked and threw Circe into the ground once, then heaved another blow and did it again into the other side of the crater.

When Circe made no move to get up this time, Diana paused and hauled her up enough to see that she was very much alive, very much conscious, but thoroughly beaten.

And she was now out of chances to spare with the Olympians.

"You are done, Circe. You will never hurt another person again. Now, step back from this course or I will find an even deeper, darker hole to throw you in." Lightning still snaking around her limbs, Diana held the lasso firmly and urged it to shine brightly for her. "I compel you to tell the Truth." She said, her voice profound with its divine command.

If the crew behind her had an opinion, they did not share it. In fact, they all seemed to be in awe. They had seen aspects of Diana's divinity, but never known it in its truest form. And to be fair, neither had Diana.

The lasso opened Circe's mind, gushing forward the Truth even more potently than before. Diana's godly abilities had pried her mind open better than the lasso alone ever could.

And what she saw was more chilling than anything she could have imagined within one, single soul's mind. The Borg had been terrifying, but that was because they had been a collective of many minds forged into the Anti-Life Equation incarnate.

But, Circe?

She was mad. There was no end. As if walking down an endless hall, opening the same door over and over only to find the same rooms waiting. There was no grand plan. The "plan" had disappeared in the ashes of her daughter centuries ago. There had only been revenge. On Diana, on humanity, and on…

"You don't love anyone, not even Ares." Diana finally whispered, blinking back a tear for the emptiness she felt in Circe's heart. "There is nothing left in you. You would have tried to kill Ares after luring him back to you because you know nothing but hatred."

"I am a god!" Circe cried, struggling against the lasso. "Who are you to tell me otherwise? I am worthy! I am immortal!"

"You are neither," Diana whispered, holding the lasso tighter. "You are not a god. You are not a primordial force of nature, destined to be timeless. You are a mortal who was once given a blessing, power beyond her understanding, and you have squandered it. And there is nothing left to do for you. You will die." Diana furrowed her brow, pained to see how far the woman had fallen. There had been a time, long ago, when Diana had thought all those who tangled with Ares were simply his pawns. Circe had been closest to his equal, and she had been lost along the way. "This is not your power, and I give it back to those who sent it to you."

Circe's eyes widened in understanding. "No!" She tried to pull away, but Diana held fast as the lightning flowing through her began to travel across the lasso. "Diana, no! You can't! Diana!" Circe's hands began to glow, as if trying to summon the last of her strength to attack.

It was in folly.

The moment Diana's divine lightning touched her skin, the moment it met with Circe's stolen power, an attempt to use worshipful energy where she had no right to it, the balance of the universe was set once more.

Only Diana forced herself not to look away as Circe screamed, consumed in a great conflagration of holy fire and lightning. She had looked away when she had done this to Ares. She would not look away now.

Circe, the witch-goddess, the sorceress of Aeiea and great enemy of Wonder Woman and the Olympians, burned to ash as Hecate's last favors left her.

The lasso went dim and fell to the ground with nothing to hold onto.

"I wish you peace alongside your mistress, Circe," Diana whispered, aware that the knot in her stomach would not disappear any time soon. She remembered Vanessa's words in Elysium, that the Nexus fed the strongest impulses in some, the darkest in others. "May Hecate guide you with her torches to the Underworld, and let us hope the tortures of Tartarus you face are not too like your own making."

At last, Circe's wrath would never visit Man's World again.

Diana had assumed her birthright and taken her first action as the only Olympian to protect Earth. As she turned to face the crew, she felt a sense of purpose and calm that she had never felt before. She was alive. She was divine.

Diana finally understood the ambrosia of the gods. It wasn't the worship, it wasn't the power…

It was the profound sense that the world around her suddenly made sense. That feeling was timeless. She was timeless. And everything, for just that moment, felt right.

Jim had no time to really think about what he was feeling, or how he was feeling. He knew that Diana was in danger, he knew that Circe had to be stopped, and he remembered what Athena had said to him.

He knew Bones would argue that nothing he did was wise, but he had heard the footsteps of his crew approaching before he'd fired on Circe. And he knew that all Diana needed was just a moment. He had no ridiculous notion that he was going to injure the woman with a phaser blast, as he doubted singeing her hair would work twice. But, he had to distract her.

So, when Diana unleashed nothing less than godly fury on the woman, he, along with the rest of his crew, watched in nothing but dumbfounded awe. It had all happened so fast, there wasn't much to be done before Circe had gone up like a horrendous engineering accident.

And then she was gone, and Diana was standing in the crater. She stood like Victory, proud, every muscle prepared for another attack while somehow profoundly graceful.

When she finally turned to face them, her eyes were still that gleaming white he had seen for just a moment before she'd gone on the attack. He had no way of knowing that was the same gleaming white of her eyes when she had rescued him on the warbird and snapped through the force field.

He just knew that Athena's words rang even more true now, but he didn't care.

She is the risen Goddess of Truth.

She was already a goddess to him, she didn't have to try. And she was…

"Diana…" Jim breathed, crossing the distance between them as her gaze finally met his.

It was only when she heard his voice, saw him coming closer, that she seemed to remember where she was. The divine lightning travelled down her body and into the ground below, her eyes blinking back to their normal warm and welcoming brown. There was clear relief as she exhaled.

"Jim…" The way she said his name made his heart clench for a moment. Even though she reached out to bring her hands to his face, touching his jawline, his cheeks, as if she knew them all, she was looking at him as if seeing him differently somehow. "You were gone… but, I knew you weren't. I don't know how to explain it. Even though Conner said you were dead… I could sense you..."

Jim cracked a smile, somehow still surprised by her ability to already have a handle on the situation. "It's a long story, but, let's just say I'm going to have plenty of time to tell you about it. " Cupping her face in his hands, he ran his thumbs along her cheeks for a moment before pulling her close. He didn't have the words to express how he felt, and he didn't care who saw. His crew knew his heart better than anyone else.

Diana had gone above and beyond what any person should have been able to do, and for just a brief moment, he had gotten a glimpse of the good she had done and would do. And Athena had given him the chance to be with her. Forever.

His mind was entirely on the present, though. That moment, holding her close, reminded him that he wasn't still lying on the concrete facing an eternity without her. Athena's bargain could be explained later. Right now, he just needed to remind himself that this time, the two of them had come out on the other side of the fires together.

So, naturally, his Chief Medical Officer, best friend, and resident buzzkill those that moment to clear his throat dramatically and saunter over.

"OK, that's enough," Bones grumbled as he came over to them. While Jim had been perfectly fine to put the world on hold for a moment, that was not in the cards. So, for everyone's sake, he took a step back from Diana and turned to face the doctor with the most casual and mock curious expression as possible. "Before you two forget where you are, we are not out of hot water yet."

"Of course," Diana breathed, that radiant smile turning to a frown as if the clouds had rolled in. "I just assumed that the bomb - "

"Oh, the bomb's already been taken care of," Bones said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Between Jaylah and Scotty, the two of them worked a damn miracle. That's not what I mean. Cale is still out there."

Jim's stomach turned a bit as he recalled her face. "Shit. She was working with Circe, I saw her before I…" He paused as he realized Bones was looking at him expectantly. Well…. No real way to avoid it… Jim shrugged. "Died." At the near explosive look on his friend's face, Jim motioned to his body with one hand. "Look, Bones, I'm fine - "

"Like hell you are!" McCoy exploded, holding up the sensor for his medical tricorder as if he wasn't sure he would use it to examine Jim or pelt it at his head.

"Perhaps you should let Leonard look at you, Jim," Diana's tone was kind, but he could tell she was doing it to keep him out of danger. He had a feeling that knowing what she was thinking - even on a bare instinctual level - was going to happen a lot more often now. "I will go find Superman and - "

"No!" Bones snapped at Diana with a huff. Given the genuine expression of surprise on her face, not even she had expected him to have such an opinion. "Now, you listen. You two are gonna sit still for one goddamned minute!" Certain he had their full attention, Bones turned and pointed to Jim. "You were apparently dead." He then turned and pointed to Diana. "You are glowing. Clearly, you're not well and you're gonna give me a few minutes to check you both out. Thanks to our Engineering team's quick thinking, the Silver Swan's tech has given me a bit more insight on those chronitons work..." Bones scowled as he began to run his sensor over Jim, then stopped and looked at him. "I checked these tricorders twice. We purged them of chronitons. So why are you full of the tiny critters?"

Jim furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to both protest the impromptu physical and put off the inevitable conversation, fully prepared to use his authority to override his chief medical officer, no matter how good his intentions. Now that he was reminded of Cale's presence, he could afford the lecture later. He needed to find her now.

"Veronica Cale is dangerous, Leonard. It would be best for all of you if you stay here and let me find her... " Diana argued for a moment, only to trail off as something ahead of her caught her attention.

Jim turned towards where she was facing and found himself equally speechless.

Conner Kent…. Was flying. And carrying a Federation shuttle in both hands over his head.

Conner Kent… was Superman.

"Bones?" Jim muttered, unable to take his eyes off of the man who looked even more like his father on Themyscira. "Remind me how long I was out of action?"

"Thankfully," Bones clapped him on the back, as if he could sense the imminent danger gripping all of them had passed simply with the arrival of Superman. "Not that long."

"Uh-huh…" Jim simply replied, not entirely sure he could add anything else to that. He had certainly tried to get Conner to beam down from the Farragut to help them, but he had to admit, he really had not expected the armor and the show of his abilities. Even more uncanny, he couldn't help but remember his first days on Themyscira after his shuttle had crashed. It was in watching Kal do the exact same thing with his own shuttle that Jim figured out the man was once Superman.

Had his words been the reason Conner was in that costume?

Jim didn't even want to feel proud of himself for that one. He was just floored by the very prospect. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, the small-town, do-nothing Iowa boy he used to be was doing somersaults. His opinion of Conner Kent had run the full gamut of emotions: awkward familiarity, admiration, camaraderie, suspicion, distrust, regret that they couldn't get along.

None of that mattered anymore, because he was watching Superman gently put that shuttle down and smiling at Diana in a way that resembled the first time they'd seen each other on the Yorktown.

"The bridge has been stabilized. I had to use my heat vision to weld some of the cables back together while Starfleet Engineering brought in replacement parts," He said as he came around, still clearly watching Diana. "And remember what you said about not worrying about the finer points?"

Diana's smile suggested she understood the inside reference to her nephew. Jim crossed his arms over his chest, catching her eye as if to remind her that there were others who wanted to know precisely what they had been up to while everyone else had been grounded.

"Yes, I do," Diana remarked, seeming more like her composed and quietly imposing self and less like a godly force of nature in a barely corked bottle. "I'm glad to hear about the bridge. But, the shuttle…"

"Well, one of those finer points made the mistake of talking loud enough for me to hear while I was watching the shuttles leave." Conner motioned to the aft section of the vessel. A small Kryptonian S shield had been burned into the bulkhead, as if to mark it. "So, I tagged it and had Security flag it."

Conner reached over and knocked twice on the shuttle door, signalling for someone inside.

After a moment, the doors opened and Admiral Veronica Cale was escorted out of the shuttle, flanked by two Starfleet Security personnel. She was already cuffed, but looked far more defiant and confident than Jim was comfortable with.

"Was anyone injured?" Jim asked, more to the security personnel than to anyone else.

"She didn't even struggle. The moment the Admiral hailed us, she didn't bother to fight us." One of the officers replied, his hand still on Cale's arm.

Jim's confusion was plain. Why would Cale have given up so easily? Had they missed something else?

"Most likely because she was expecting the Tal Shiar agents on the Lunar base to assist her with an escape at a later date." Spock spoke up for the first time since he'd arrived, prompting Jim to turn to face him. Leave it to his first officer to wrap up the loose ends. A quick glance back at Cale suggested that he'd been right, too. She had expected a rescue. "I believe Captain Garrovick will have them in custody within the day. All transports were suspended from New Berlin once we arrived."

"Commander, I'd recommend you shutting your mouth with these baseless accusations," Cale said, cool and calm. It was the same tone she'd used during Jim's hearing. It was a tone that suggested she had plans within plans and nothing was going to faze her. "I'm a Starfleet Admiral - "

"You are a war criminal, Veronica." Diana finally said, moving so that she could face the other woman. There was a dark edge to her voice. With the threat of Circe gone, she now could focus on precisely the role Cale had played in all of this, and from Jim's perspective, it was the most insidious of all. She'd been the one orchestrating the bomb, Vanessa, the Romulan infiltration. Circe had just helped her get there.

"Ahh…" Veronica sighed, smiling sourly at the goddess before her. "Diana," She said her name at a drawl, mixed with disgust and annoyance that suggested the kind of grudge that went as deep as her soul. "So good to see you again. I thought you'd well and truly given up on humanity, and yet here we are - "

Diana's hand shot out faster than anyone could react - except perhaps Conner, who didn't seem interested in stopping her - and clutched at her Admiral's uniform at the neck, tugging her closer. "You are a murderer, a traitor, and a liar. And you have been planning this neverending profit cycle of death and destruction for centuries." Diana growled as she drew the woman even closer. "You are responsible for all of this chaos. You are just as bad as Circe, and I will end you with the same prejudice so that Vanessa's soul may be at peace and avenged - "

Jim caught the spark of lightning at Diana's hand and instantly knew what she was planning. He sped forward, holding his hands out plaintively. "Diana, don't!"

Diana paused, turning to look at him in confusion. Of course, why wouldn't she? He hadn't stopped her from… vanquishing Circe, for lack of a better term. Why would he stop her from doling out Olympian justice now?

It never occurred to Jim that she'd never actually asked the questions. He'd just sort of… known. Just like when he'd known she was growing tired in the fight. Fleeting moments of connection. "Look, I know it would be fair by your standards to kill her. She's done horrible, unspeakable things."

"And she doesn't care, Jim." Diana replied, her eyes clearly troubled. "She will continue to do them the moment she has influence, Jim. I am within my right to seek justice for my sister - "

"You are, you are absolutely right," Jim conceded, slowly inching closer to her as her hand tightened its grip on Cale's jacket. "But, this isn't just about justice for Vanessa as an Amazon. This is about the people that died because of Vanessa. Hackett…. The countless people who Veronica's eliminated over the last two hundred years to get where she is. It's about her paying for handing Khan the reins to the Augment project with Damian." Finally, he rested his hand on her shoulder. "This isn't a problem for you to solve as a goddess. This is a problem humanity created. It's a problem we need to solve." Squeezing gently, Jim motioned to the admiral's bars on Cale's collar. "She deserves to be held to the Federation's standards. She needs a trial, and more importantly, we need to go through the process so we can track down every last one of her accomplices. And maybe your lasso can help with that, but…" He breathed. "Diana, you kill her, and a lot of people don't get justice. Jaylah never gets to know what happened that night, if there was anyone else."

Diana's grip loosened as she saw the truth in his words, the desire for vengeance slowly fading.

"I lost Chris Pike to her alliance with Khan and with Marcus." Jim said softly, quiet enough that only she could hear. "She's been playing this game a long time, and it's going to take just as long to sort out her influence."

After a long moment, eyes searching his face, Diana nodded and straightened a bit. "I agree," She said softly, the steady tone finally returning to her voice. But, she wasn't done. Instead of releasing Cale, she turned to look at the woman. "But, first, you will tell me why you did this. No lasso, I won't bother. I know you, Veronica. You've never lied to me, just used the truth to your advantage. So, why this? Why now?"

At first, Cale just pursed her lips and remained silent. Jim couldn't help but wonder if she would choose to stay silent just to spite Diana. But, as it turned out, she had been measuring her words for maximum effect. "Because some people just aren't like you, Diana. Some of us don't care about the little guy. Some of us came from nothing and built something, only for some pretty little love-and-justice-speech-wielding creature from another naive world to sweep through and tear it all down. And I was building back up to something. Circe and i struck our bargain before the Medusa was unleashed on the city. And I knew, no matter where you banished her to, she'd find a way to come back. Because she is a simple, stupid creature and I could use her vendetta to my advantage. And you couldn't stop me." Cale took a step forward, eyes hawk-like and severe. "You were gone. I could finally outlast you. And I have, because you will never find all the things I've touched. Starfleet will always know I was there. I'll live forever, and eventually, someone will extradite me or let me out of a penal colony for good behavior and we'll be right back to square one."

Jim's temper had gone from non-existent to a steady simmer the longer Cale went on. She hadn't just wrecked Diana's life since arriving back to society, she had been responsible for Pike's death, for the same kind of jingoistic crap Marcus had used to nearly start a war with the Klingons. And when Diana was close to brokering peace, her agents in the Tal Shiar had ruined that, too.

Diana seemed to have found something else to hold onto, both figuratively and physically. As Cale finished her rousing speech, determined to spit in Diana's face until the end, he noticed Diana's hand move. Her fingers went from the collar of the jacket long enough to unbutton the top button and pull free the grand pearls of Calypso that she had pointed out to Jim.

"Then, I see no punishment more fitting than for you to watch us tear apart your legacy piece by piece, forging unity in its wake and knowing that you will have to answer the call of the Ferryman sooner than you wish." Diana gripped the necklace tighter and pulled.

The pearls snapped from Cale's neck and went scattering across the grass.

Veronica Cale went from calm to panicked within moments, quickly trying to pull free of the security officers. "No! My pearls! Let me go! I'm an Admiral, you let me go and you will retrieve my pearls this instant!"

Jim glanced over at Conner, then caught the way Kent nodded at him, as if to say he could do the honors. After all, Admiral Kent wasn't in uniform, he was in armor as a symbol of the Justice League.

"Admiral Veronica Cale," Jim said, settling into the steady rhythm that he gave all manner of orders and captain's logs in as he trained his phaser on her. "As you have been accused of treason, murder, conspiracy and a myriad of other charges, I hereby take you into custody and will have you escorted to Starfleet Command…"

Veronica Cale was in custody, ironclad evidence at the ready to put her away in a Federation Penal Settlement. Circe was forever gone from the mortal plane. As she was not a true Olympian, she would not sleep the dreamless slumber of gods, waiting for the right soul to come by and spark life back into her. She was in the hands of the Nexus now.

The Tal Shiar agents were apprehended shortly after Conner and Diana finished cleaning up the various areas of town that the Swan or Circe had damaged. It was hardly perfect, but at least they could say that the majority of the debris and anything of immediate danger had been handled.

Diana should have been exhausted and ready to sleep.

Instead, she was still in the strange sense of near-euphoria that each expenditure of power gave her. Something told her that, with time, the sensation would fade. Already, spending time just with Conner for a few hours had helped her begin to force that sense of profound understanding to move to the background.

She didn't quite understand the gift given to her by the gods. It was one she had certainly never asked for. Yet, her mother had been sure this was Diana's destiny. Whatever that meant, she would face it with certainty, but with humility. She had never learned to see humanity as lesser beings. She wouldn't start now.

Now, she was waiting outside the Federation Assembly building as Conner headed inside to change back into a Starfleet uniform and to retrieve Jim from the inevitable moebius strip that was an Admiralty board questions. It would take time to sort everything out with Cale and none of it would happen as the sun was rising.

"So, I guess your tenure as Superman makes you uniquely qualified to rescue people from both buckling bridges and blustering admirals," Jim was saying as he and Conner exited the assembly building.

"Are you kidding? Remind me to tell you about the time I actually out-sassed Metallo." Conner almost sounded like the boy she had once known. If it hadn't been the fact that there was still quite a bit of salt and pepper in his hair, she would have thought she'd gone back in time. The yellow sunlight of Earth had not been enough to restore Conner's youth, but when combined with the natural properties of the Kryptonian armor, it had lifted a couple of decades off of him. It was enough to show her that both he and Kal-El had many years left in them, if they only wished for it.

The bit of easy wit and casual tone brought a smile to Diana's face as she turned to face them. She was still in her armor, a bit dusty and sooty, which meant she was a bit of a motley addition to the duo in their clean-cut uniforms. "Gentleman," She said with a nod.

"Your Majesty," Jim said with a grin, then paused. "Actually, can I still call you that? Or Angel? Divine Goddess just seems…. Kind of over the top." The wink he gave her almost made Diana forget that Conner was standing beside him. He'd been in an unusual mood before Cale had arrived, and he had continued that notion.

"You can save the pet names for when I'm not around, if you don't mind, Kirk." Conner remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. The smile on his face suggested he not take the reprimand too seriously.

"Of course, my apologies…" Jim rattled off with ease, looking perfectly contrite before he added, "Admiral Superman."

"Kirk." Conner warned with a severe look.

"How did things go with the admiralty board?" Diana asked, choosing to pivot both of them back to the reason they had been gone. She had another matter she needed to discuss, but wanted to make sure that it would not seem trivial against the greater political sphere. "Have they accepted your testimony regarding Veronica?"

Jim took a deep breath, taking a moment to consider what he'd just done, then answered, "I think so, yes. They're going to want all of us to give detailed statements, show them how we got the evidence we did, and anything we can corroborate, we will want to. But, they at least felt there was enough to suggest her involvement in the explosion of the research facility and to make her a person of interest in Hackett's death." He shrugged. "It didn't help that she fled the scene."

"So… what comes next?" Diana directed the question more to Conner, since he was Jim's commanding officer and her own Federation liaison. It was strange to think that she could fall back into the old patterns of compartmentalizing her "superhero" life with her "civilian" life. They were just much closer in nature now.

"Well," Conner tilted his head a bit from side to side before answering. "Given the pace that Starfleet will want to investigate this, it will probably be a few weeks before we can send the Enterprise back on its tour, but it's also too long to warrant keeping the crew here if they don't want to be." He shrugged, much like Jim just had. So much youth had returned to him, in no time. "You're all free for the next couple of weeks. I'll send the communique when we need you all back here for the first hearings."

His words were met with honest relief on Diana's part. She didn't bother to hide it. "Would you be willing to travel with us?" She asked, only to catch Jim's questioning glance. She knew that technically, she was overstepping, but she had a feeling Jim would not disagree. "I have something that must be done, and I would very much like you to come with me."

Conner's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I… Of course, Diana, whatever you need. Can I ask what you need to do?"

Diana glanced over at Jim, then motioned for them both to follow her. She made her way over to a hovercart that had been used by Chief Scott only a few hours ago. On the cart lay Vanessa's entombed body, what was left of it.

Reaching out, she ran a hand down the smooth metal cheek of her fallen sister. As much as she wanted to lose herself in Jim's arms, to hear the still untold yarn of his miraculous return from the dead…. Promises had to be kept.

"I would very much like to go home."