Chapter 1: The Princess in the 'Tower

The waters came crashing down, and crashing down hard. The shallowing of the ocean as the waves hit land slowed the waters significantly. The waves had got higher, an almighty wall of water. As it got further towards the land, the waves got slowed down more and more. Soon there was no longer enough speed for the vast column of displaced fluid to keep going. It had no where else to go but down.

The tsunami had struck.

Wonder Woman flew out of the way just in time, a small child held under each arm. She felt the spray splash against her, could feel the force of the impact of the sheer tonnage of water, but she didn't look back. She had to get these kids to safety.

The tsunami was predictably unpredictable. No one had had any warning of it, least of all all those people who were suddenly right in harms way. Thankfully, the sensors aboard the Watchtower had immediately detected the tectonic plates suddenly shift beneath the Pacific Ocean. The Justice League had been able to see the instant the waters were pushed apart by the energy suddenly unleashed upon them. It had not been hard to spot where the waves were going to strike; on the Eastern Pacific, at a small but popular island. It had many inhabitants and countless tourists residing there all year around. Being the heroes that they were, the Justice League could not just sit back and let those people die. Instantly a warning had been sent down there for people to get to high ground. For those who couldn't make it in time, help had been dispatched.

Wonder Woman was one of those immediately dispatched to the scene. With her flight and strength abilities, she was able to gather up people from the beaches and lift them away to safety, even grabbing whole bus loads of them on more than one occasion. Similarly powered, Superman was doing exactly the same, as were all the other heroes the League had been able to muster at such short notice who wouldn't just need rescuing from the waves themselves. There hadn't been the time to recall the likes of Green Lantern, the Flash and Shayera from missions they were already on to help the efforts. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they were needed.

The waves had been seconds away from the beach when the children had been spotted. The Justice League had felt that they had already gotten everyone at least far enough back from the ocean that they ought to stand a chance. They had been wrong. The two youngsters, locals in origin, had clearly not been being watched over by their guardians as they had played on the beach. They were alone out there, with no one to tell the League they were missing. More, they were young enough that the hurried commotion of the Justice League snatching people up and taking them away had scared them, so they had hid out of sight to prevent themselves being snatched away too. Thankfully, Wonder Woman had taken a second look back at the beach before the wave struck.

Superman had called after her in worry when he had watched her sudden fly right into the heart of the danger zone. She had had no chance to tell him what she was doing or why, but thankfully he seemed to quickly catch on, letting her go as fast as she could.

She made it just in time. Even a fraction of a second slower and those kids would have been lost to the waves. Perhaps she herself might have been too. But that was a purely hypothetical scenario now. She had made it. She had saved the children.

It was a good minute before she dared look back, well away from the wave by then. Hovering in the clear blue skies with a child crying from the ordeal under each of her arms, she looked down at the mayhem that had hit the island. Water stretched for far enough where once there had been a bustling community. Vehicles could be seen floating away, boats toppled and smashed, rooftops now looking like floating jetties. The entire town looked like it was gone, lost to the oceans. Thankfully though, the Justice League seemed to have showed up right on time. From up there Wonder Woman could see the gathering of her fellow heroes and all the many citizens they had lifted to safety up on a steep, dry hilltop. It seemed that any loss of life to the disastrous phenomenon was going to be absolutely minimal.

The day was saved.

"I'm glad you spotted them. Nice work, Diana," Superman commented, coming to hover alongside her. He looked and sounded proud of her, as well as a little embarrassed that he hadn't spotted the two kids himself. He was the one with the complete array of vision enhancement after all.

"Thanks," Wonder Woman returned, before gesturing at the two kids, perfectly aware that chances were slim that they spoke any English. "We need to track down their parents. We can't just leave them like this. They have to know that their family wasn't lost in... that."

She nodded at the massively flooded land below them. It really was a mess.

"We'll get right on it, but there might be a few such cases. We had to move people rather quickly. There might be quite a few folks who are currently separated that we need to bring back together."

Superman didn't know just how right he was with that. He couldn't. The thought of the additional meanings gave Diana the odd mix of feeling giddy and gutted all at the same time. Thankfully the blend of the two meant nothing was revealed on her face.

"Then we best get to it," Diana dodged the situation, before setting off to fly down to the where the rest of the refugees were stood atop that hill. Work was the best distraction. It had been for months.

The Justice League had indeed not waited before the next phase of the task began. Simply keeping those people alive was only the beginning of the job. They couldn't just carry these folks up to the safety of that hill and leave them there. They had to ensure that these people could get back on with their lives as soon as possible, that this ordeal wasn't just a very slow end instead of a quick one.

The two children's families hadn't taken overly long to find. It turned out their parents had been right at the front of the queue, desperately asking Captain Atom to help them find the kids. When Wonder Woman had landed beside them, the children had ran straight into their parents arms with tears of joy.

Other families were being reunited all the time. Some were still separate. On top of that, some people were still missing. With several of the local citizens of the island having been making their own way to safety before the Justice League arrived, it was entirely possible that they were just waiting to be ticked off the list and were amongst the rabble in the refugee group on the hill. Of course, it was also possible that despite all the League's best efforts, some people may have still been caught up by those devastating waves.

The town was still a real mess. The waters had hardly even begun to recede. It would be a long time before it would even be possible to start the long rebuilding process. Arrangements were being made for all the tourists on the island to be taken home with whatever of their belongings had survived the tsunami. That wasn't an option for those who had made their permanent home there. For them the League had to come up with a different plan. Thankfully one of the neighbouring islands had willingly offered its lands to be used for constructing a temporary refugee camp until it was possible for the town to be liveable again.

Several of the heroes of the Justice League were still down there organising that operation, but largely the efforts had been taken over by civilian, military and charitable organisations. The Justice League were not a government. They could not impose themselves on people's lives or force their will upon them, even if it was for the people's benefit. Even in cases such as this one, such rules applied. Superman and several others had remained on the scene, particularly for some of the heavy lifting as well as for efforts to save as much of the flooded town as possible. Largely though, this was now out of their hands.

And that was why Wonder Woman was back up on the Watchtower. She wasn't the only one at that, and several of the other Leaguers who had helped save lives on that island had gone off to the Metrotower. For them, things were going back to normal, or as close to normal as they would ever get. A second after she had re-materialised, Diana stepped straight off of the transporter pad and looked directly to the control station.

J'onn was the one on duty now. Diana was glad, very glad. She had nothing against Mr. Terrific, definitely not, but for the past eight months she had always hoped that it would be J'onn that she would see up there whenever she beamed up to the Watchtower. Of course, her reasons were entirely selfish. It had been eight months since that incident with the attack by the cross-dimensional aliens. Eight long months.

Eight months since Batman had left. He had gone to put himself under some personal training, something that went beyond what he had studied and perfected over the years, to teach himself how to cope with some happiness in his life without losing what made him the Bat Man.

Eight months since she and Batman had both confessed their love for one another.

Diana had known that he was going, and she had accepted it. She knew that it was necessary if she and Batman were to ultimately be together in the long run. However, that didn't mean that she was enjoying this. After all they had been through to just get to the stage of understanding and admitting their feelings to each other, she was looking forward to the next stage of things. Love was hardly something she had experienced before, not of this kind, not for a man. Batman just seemed to be different. He enthralled her, captivated her in a way no one else ever could. His warrior spirit, the strength of his heart even if it was well concealed, the choice he made to be a hero. It all meant that despite all she had been told of men throughout her life on Themyscira, she had fallen in love with one.

But she had been apart from the man she loved from the very night they had agreed to give themselves a try. They still had plenty of issues to work out, but Diana was so looking forward to doing exactly that. The only problem was that Batman still wasn't coming back. Diana wasn't normally patient, but she had to accept that right now they had to work to Batman's timing. Despite that she wasn't really patient right now either, but she knew that there was nothing she could do to speed things along. Forcing Batman to come back would likely only slow things down or undo everything they'd achieved so far. That she couldn't allow.

However, despite all that, she could hope. She could hope every time that she came up to the Watchtower, Batman would be there waiting for her. That was why she always looked for J'onn. Thanks to his telepathy, he was one of only three people outside the couple themselves who knew that Batman and Wonder Woman had fallen for one another. As such, he would know exactly what it was that Diana was actually looking out for as she glanced up to the control area upon arrival.

Unfortunately, once again J'onn shook his head as Diana glanced up to him. That meant that, just like every other time over the last eight months, Diana walked away as if everything was normal. If J'onn had nodded, she would be flying away at speeds that would make Flash proud.

As things were, having been busy down on that Pacific Island for several hours, Wonder Woman set off towards the commissary, feeling more than ready for refreshments. She was there before she knew it, food all on her tray without her even thinking about it, so much so that when she began to eat it she was surprised with what lay before her. In the end, she was sat alone at one of the tables and eating away without even being able to remember the journey from the transporter to there.

"It's not like you to be sat in the corner by yourself."

Wonder Woman looked up as the sudden voice spoke up from right in front of her. It was John Stewart, the marine turned Green Lantern. It was clear that he had just arrived back from a mission of his own and had had the same first inclination that she had. However, she hadn't seen or heard him approach. She had been miles away.

"John! I'm sorry, I didn't see you come in," she said, her voice full of warmth in the face of her friend. "Take a seat. Don't worry, I'm not desperate to be left alone. It just kind of...happened."

"You're becoming more like the rest of us everyday, you know," GL replied as he indeed sat himself down across from her with a knowing smile. "Those Amazon's on that island of yours would hardly recognise you."

"John, there's no need to insult me."

Wonder Woman said it rather deadpan, and thankfully John took it as such. Diana was still proud of her heritage, very proud of it. She wasn't about to abandon it, and she knew that she wasn't losing it. She never would. She wouldn't allow that either. John had been joking, to a large extent at least. However, Diana also couldn't deny that her time in Man's World had changed her. Her feelings for Batman were the obvious example there. Still, she constantly thought of herself as far more Amazon than not. She was just taking the best of both worlds.

"So how did your mission go?" she asked as John let out a chuckle at her last comment, changing the subject. J'onn had sent Green Lantern out with Green Arrow, Fire and a rookie hero who had recently joined the League to tackle an unusual villain somewhere in North Africa. Wonder Woman hadn't heard the full story of what exactly that villain was. What she knew for sure was that it was something new, and...different. What she had heard she had heard in a rush, meaning that she didn't really understand properly the complex description. Rushing off not long after that to the Pacific to deal with that tidal wave didn't help things much either. Still, the fact that John was back safe and sound and smiling meant things must have gone fairly smoothly.

"Oh, nothing we couldn't handle," John answered with a shrug, before taking a bite out of the food on his plate. "Kind of reminded me of that whole thing with Brimstone actually. How about yours? I hear there was some excitement after we left."

"A tsunami in the Pacific," Wonder Woman answered after swallowing her own bite of dinner. "Thankfully this time there was only the one island in its path, and it looks like we were able to get at least the vast majority of residents to safety in time. Superman is still down there helping the efforts to see that the people are cared for now that their homes are destroyed. I got a little wet, but like you said, it was nothing that we couldn't handle."

"Good," John said with a smile, before shovelling another mouthful of food in. He took a moment to chew and swallow, Diana using the time to do likewise off her own plate. Then GL said something that completely reversed the conversation. "So Batman's still not back yet then, huh?"

Diana almost choked on her food at the shock of John's sudden question. Perhaps she shouldn't have been so surprised, since GL was another of the few who knew of the situation between her and Batman. Apparently he had somehow figured it out before even Diana herself had come to terms with her feelings for Gotham's dark knight. Still, with the conversation as it had been, the return to Batman had caught Diana off guard.

"No, he's not," she rasped once she had cleared her airway, taking a sip of water to help her rediscover her voice. "But after eight months, there's nothing setting today apart any more than any other day. He'll only come back when to us when he's ready."

John actually laughed again at that, making Diana flash him a confused look.

"I'm not sure it's 'us' that he'll be coming back to. Not at first at least," he quickly explained. "In fact, I'm getting the very distinct impression that he's only been away this long because he's absolutely desperate not to mess things up when he does come back. When he comes back to you."

Diana smiled again at that. The same thought had occurred to her too several months ago, but she didn't know if it had just been a bit of wishful thinking. No matter how sincere Bruce had been that night when he had told her everything, there was still that part of her mind which held doubts, that wouldn't let the idea die that he might not live up to his word, that he might not come back to her at all. But that was a small part of her mind. Bruce had earned her full trust long before she realised she loved him, and she knew that it was a two-way street. He would be back, and he would stick to his promise. She knew it. John pretty much saying the same thing only helped make her all the more certain.

Of course, she and Batman weren't the only Justice League Founders whose love lives weren't exactly normal at the minute. For one, Superman was yet to reveal to Lois that he was actually just Clark Kent without the glasses, a saga which had been ongoing for years now. Most relevant right now, though, was the situation John was in.

In that moment Diana dearly wanted to offer John some words of encouragement such as those he had just given her. The problem was that no one, including Diana, seemed to know what to say to GL on that subject. John Stewart's love life had been complicated for a while now, to say the least. Ever since Shayera's return to the Justice League after her part in the Thanagarian invasion he had been caught between two women that he loved, the one he was with and the one he really wanted. A man of honour, John had been determined to stay with Vixen despite clearly still harbouring feelings for the former Hawkgirl. Things had just gotten even more complex when, having seen the future while stopping a villain with a time machine, John had learned that one day he and Shayera would have a son. From what Diana knew, the desire to not just conform to what fate had declared his life to be was just keeping John from Shayera more, giving him yet more reason to stay with Vixen in spite of his heart's true desire.

And then that attack by the cross-dimensional alien had happened. During the fight against them, Shayera had been wounded. John's reactions had made his true feelings abundantly clear, and Vixen was not blind enough to miss them. From that day she had known that Shayera would always be the one to really have GL's love. She had tried for a few months to get beyond that, to make her and GL still work as an item in spite of that knowledge. However, as to be expected really, her efforts had ultimately proven fruitless. Just a couple of weeks ago Green Lantern and Vixen had amicably decided to go their separate ways.

Yet John still had not gone back to Shayera. He was still too determined to live his life by his own choices, still the type of man who would rather stare fate right in the eye and then walk a different path to the one it guided him down. Everyone and their mother would be able to tell John that he and Shayera would be so much happier if they got together again, that they belonged together. Unfortunately, John Stewart was yet to listen.

Using the pretence of finishing off her meal, Wonder Woman racked her brain in search of some way of asking John about Shayera without saying the wrong thing and setting him back even further. As it turned out, that silence was enough to let GL know exactly what it was that she was thinking.

"Yeah, I guess you're not the only one waiting," he said, looking away from her, talking more to his food than anything now the subject had gotten a bit touchier as far as he was concerned. "But it's difficult. I'm still trying to sort everything out in my head, still trying to find my way around everything. Until I do then its better for everyone to keep things as they are. It might always be better."

Diana knew GL didn't really mean that, but once again she couldn't find the right words to say so. Instead, she took heed of the earlier part of the conversation and gave humour a chance.

"You're starting to sound like Batman. I'd fix that pretty quick if I were you."

John looked up to her again at that, actually taking a second before seeing the smile on her face signalling that she was joking around with him. Then he smiled too.

"I guess I am," he said through it. "We can't have that now can we. The Justice League wouldn't be able to take it. Flash for one would go absolutely crazy just at the idea!"

"What's to say the thought of it isn't the reason why he acts as he does already?" Diana continued the tone. "He's probably trying to keep everyone else in too light a mood for Bruce to be able to make us all as brooding as he is."

"That sounds like the sort of crazy thing he might do," John laughed again. "Where is he anyway? I wouldn't have thought it'd be like him to hang around for the bureaucracy once the quicker part of the job was done, not once the people were all safe and folks were on hand to help them move on."

"He and Shayera got called off on their own mission moments before the sensors registered that tsunami," Wonder Woman nonchalantly informed her colleague. "I think one of our old friends from the Death Row Gang somehow managed to escape from prison. Those two went to make sure he went back there before he could get up to any serious mischief."

"Good." All laughter had gone from John's voice again. Once again he was talking to his food instead of to her. Diana instantly understood why. The conversation had involved reference to Shayera again. It didn't matter what context it had been in. It was just the effect that even thinking about her and the romance in his life had on John at the moment. Perhaps Batman really did need to return soon. It was starting to seem like the Green Lantern needed to follow his lead in learning how to cope with letting the one he loved into his life. Or, more accurately in John's case, letting her back in.

Still, Diana couldn't deny that she was really thinking that for selfish reasons, that she would take whatever good reason was offered for Bruce to come back soon. Like John with Shayera, just thinking of him and what their future might hold together had a strong effect on her, she was just better at keeping it to herself. For a long time now she had tried to avoid having Bruce permanently on her mind, to concentrate on her duties as Wonder Woman as she had done ever since taking the title. However, in those earlier days she had not known that she had fallen in love. These days it was near impossible not to think about him, even if he had been away from her for eight very long months.

And it didn't help her efforts to avoid thinking of him while she was talking about Flash and Shayera's mission, which was taking them dangerously close to Gotham, the territory Batman so fiercely guarded...

"So John," she suddenly spoke up again, determined to change what was on each of their respective minds right now, even if was to instead talk of a topic she would not normally hold much interest in. "How are things in the rest of Sector 2814?"

A/N:

Don't worry, you'll get to see Batman again soon. Beware though - updates will likely be weekly at best, for a while at least. Apologies, but this beast is taking longer to get done than previously thought, especially as its bigger than the last one and I don't exactly have much time on my hands to do it. Following the great reaction the little prologue got I'll try to be faster, but I can't make any promises.

In the meantime though, review/favourite/follow away! Might just encourage me to try and speed up even more...