Chapter 16: Lovers and Fighters

Flash was running again. Once again he had J'onn draped over him, and once again they were on a rather literal race against time. A new attack was coming, a bad one. J'onn had made that much perfectly clear to him. This cloud thing wasn't done. One attack on the Earth wasn't enough for it, especially after learning all about the last time any kind of Imperium guys had come to visit. Boy, it sounded like they were pissed. Boy, did Flash have to get him and J'onn to the other two fast.

"We still heading the right way, big guy?" Flash called out to the Martian on his shoulders. He still found it hard to believe that their usual Martian pal was the only one actually on their side, that they had failed to convince any of the others to help them out too. He still found it hard to believe that what he had been told was a grand, noble race had acted so cowardly when so many were needing their help. Then again, he still found it hard to believe any of what had been going on in the last few hours. It was all madness. "Can't exactly pick my way around a landscape that can change so easy. Ain't no sign of our two just yet!"

"There will be things to see soon," J'onn returned instantly. "We are still on the right path. I can sense Batman and Wonder Woman are ever nearer to us. Just a minute or two more and we should be able to see the cloud's core."

"Good job, because I want to get this thing over with!" Flash hollered back. "I don't know about you, J'onn, but I'm getting a bit fed up with having my head this high up in the clouds!"

"Fear not, Wally," J'onn calmly responded, albeit not sounding like he had that much confidence in his own words. "We will get through this."

"Yeah," Flash simply muttered at the sound of that, and was tempted to try and run even faster. Only his fears about the consequences of going too fast again held him back, ever so slightly stronger than his fears of what could happen if they didn't get a plan sorted in time. Based on everything J'onn had said before this latest leg of the run had begun, Flash knew that the best hope of a quick plan was the ever ready Batman, but he would need to know what was happening. They had to reach him fast. Flash might joke a lot about the man who hardly ever smiled and seemed to spend his entire life brooding in the shadows, but he definitely respected Batman. He still knew that Batman's mind was one of the best weapons the Justice League had, if not the best. With people like himself, J'onn and Diana on hand to add some muscle and speed to those plans, it was a formidable combination that had proved effective against all kinds of foes.

And boy did they need that combination right now.

He had to get them to Bats and Wonder Woman fast. Very fast.

But none of that wouldn't prepare him for the sight that he saw when they got there.

The world may have been in terrible danger, they may have been in an unbelievable situation, but that didn't mean that Wonder Woman was not feeling incredibly, blissfully happy in that moment. What had happened in the core of the cloud had changed everything. It had sent her feelings haywire, enough so to mean that that was a moment where her warrior spirit did not so forcefully win through.

And it wasn't just the good things either. She had seen it all, all of Batman's life of pain, suffering and loneliness. All of his guilt, all of his grief. It had almost overwhelmed her. No matter how much one can hear about such things, nothing compares to actually having lived it. When his memories had filled her mind, it had been practically like they were her memories too. It had been practically like it had been her parents that night...

And that only served to give her even more respect for the man behind the Dark Knight. It showed her just how strong Bruce truly was, just how human he truly was. She knew if roles were reversed, if she had been a child of Gotham instead of Paradise, then she would not have been able to resist seeking revenge, seeking blood. Yet Bruce had. Not only that, but he had also managed to retain a real humanity, no matter how shrouded it was in the Bat. He had proved that once again in his determined effort to stop his memories sending her into a nosedive of anger and despair. He had proved it when he had made sure that his memories didn't make Wonder Woman lose who she was.

No wonder she had fallen for him.

They were still embraced, still locked in each others arms, still lost in a deep, passionate kiss. It was one that Wonder Woman did not want to end, despite knowing all to well that very, very soon she and Bruce would be needed to try and save the world again. She didn't need to be in his head again to be able to tell that Bruce was thinking the same things. But they had earned this moment. After all that had happened, they needed this moment. And after so many years in the making, they were both going to savour the moment.

"Definitely worth waiting for," Batman commented when their lips eventually parted, though their faces stayed close, both of them still in each other's arms. His cowl was on, his lenses in place, but there was still that smile on his face that was so rare from the visage of the Batman.

"Just don't go making a habit of waiting for it," Wonder Woman returned with a smile of her own. She still found it hard to believe that a man could make her feel like this, but there could definitely be no doubting it now. "I waited for you once. I think I'd have to punish you if you make me wait like that again."

Batman smirked a little more like that, feeling through their proximity like he was about to pull her in tighter again. Wonder Woman was going to let him, was going to allow another long moment of tenderness to fall between the two of them.

At least, that was, until they heard someone close by very audibly clearing their throat. They were not alone any more.

Flash and J'onn were standing there, not too far away, lit up well in the light of the glowing core they still stood near. Both males were looking fixedly at them. Wonder Woman could feel Batman quickly let her go at the sight of them there. She was actually amazed that he hadn't noticed the two arriving either given what she had seen of him so many times before.

Diana herself kept her face neutral, giving nothing away, as Batman clenched his jaw and crossed his arms before his chest. It seemed silly, but a part of Wonder Woman had the oddest desire to be screaming her love for Batman to anyone who would listen. However, the rational part still won out, the part that said that she and Bruce had to figure this all out fully before anyone else, even their other friends, could know. Unfortunately, it seemed that the number they had to tell had just shrunk again. Now the cat was out of the bag for another of their fellow heroes.

"Erm... Wow. Have I completely missed something or did we just come in at one hell of an awkward time?" Flash muttered, gesturing away behind him with his thumb as if asking if he and J'onn should leave.

"What is it?" Batman snarled in his deep, no nonsense voice. It was the voice he used whenever he wanted someone to drop it. It was a voice that was very definitely used to shut Flash up and move things along. While Wonder Woman usually had to problem with a lot of Wally's quirks, she had to admit that this time it was for the best that Batman had turned that glare on the Speedster. She could actually see Flash somewhat wilt under it.

"We have even bigger problems than we originally thought," J'onn answered when it was clear Flash was too busy trying to hide away from that glare. His voice didn't sound like there was going to be an upside to what he had to say. Not only that, but Wonder Woman couldn't help but notice how all of the other Martians that J'onn and Wally had gone to meet were conspicuous by their absence.

"How bad?" Batman beat her to voicing the worries. Typically he kept his sentence short and to the point.

"For one, our new Martian friend's aren't actually all that friendly," Flash responded, though Batman's glare fell on him again. This time Wonder Woman felt that was a tad harsh. Wally had only been trying to help this time, after all. However, the Flash was still silenced by Batman's glare. Clearly Bruce didn't want to hear anything from the kid for a while after that early quip.

"We found the members of my race who Transcended to form the cloud," J'onn expanded when Wally fell silent. That part in itself should have been enough to make J'onn sound happy. Wonder Woman knew all too well the ache of feeling alone. She had lived it throughout her time exiled from Themyscira, which had lasted but a mere fraction the time J'onn had lived as the last Martian. To be reunited with more of his kind, even only in this purely mental form, should have been incredibly joyous for him. Instead, it sounding almost anything but. "They were... not what we expected. Not what we hoped. My people were brave and noble once. Peaceful, yes, but not cowardly when we had no choice but to fight. Centuries of living in fear have dredged that out of them. They were scientists who thought they were dying to help save our kind when the Imperium invaded our planet. They thought they had met their end, and had prepared for that. Then, it turned out it wasn't the end, and the cloud was formed, the Imperium soldiers they had died to destroy being dragged along with them. They were trapped in a place that they didn't fully understand, surrounded by scores of their deadliest enemies. They found their best way was to hide, and they have become so very used to hiding. That means they are still afraid to act now. They are afraid of the fury the Imperium could unleash upon them if they make their presence more public. Any attempt to help us, any attempt to use their telepathic powers to help us seize control of the cloud wouldbring them to the Imperium's attention. That, they are too afraid of."

"Good job you guys didn't actually need us to convince them that last time..." Flash muttered, mainly under his breath. However, this time Wonder Woman spoke up before Batman could unleash the glare once more.

"From the way you've raced in to bring all of this up, I take it that we might soon be wishing we had that help?" she mused. "J'onn, what else has happened? What don't we know?"

J'onn actually sighed before answering. "While with the other Martians I could sense what you and Batman did to drive the cloud away from the city. However, I could also sense other minds within the cloud, including other human minds. I do not know how much you two know, but the cloud has descended upon the Earth. Many citizens have been taken, absorbed into the energy, as we were."

"We know," Batman growled as J'onn paused for a moment. "We saw them pass through. The Imperium took them before we could do anything to stop them."

"Indeed," J'onn confirmed that what he knew matched what they did. "The Imperium do have them. They have them trapped and locked away, somehow..."plugging in" their captive's minds to act as an extra energy source and further boost their power and control over the cloud. It is now far stronger than before, far more dangerous to the people of the Earth. But that isn't all either. The Imperium did not immediately plug all captives in as an energy source. Unfortunately, they interrogated one of them first."

"They know about what happened the last time the Imperium came to Earth," Wonder Woman breathed in realisation. She didn't need J'onn's confirming nod to know that it was true. She also didn't need to hear the rest of J'onn's explanations to know how bad the repercussions of this could be.

"They do," J'onn said while he was nodding. "They have learned everything about it. They were lost, desperately seeking a way back to the leader they so adored in the hope of unleashing their new found powers with the cloud to his whim, of being home again. What they learned took all those hopes away from them in one instant. That devastated them, and there is now only one thing on their minds. Revenge against the planet which saw the downfall of their leader. As soon as all their new captives are providing them increased energy they will attack again, this time simply to destroy. If we are to save all who have been taken by this cloud, the people of the Earth and ourselves, we have to stop them. The problem is, without my people's aid in trying to wrest control of the cloud away from them, I do not know how."

"Can't what you two did last time work again?" Flash asked, suddenly genuinely confused as to why there was an issue there.

"Too difficult, too dangerous," Batman very simply answered without going into the details of what that core tried to do to any pair who entered it, and it had already been made clear that one mind was not enough in there. Instead, Batman pressed for more information, sounding remarkably calm given the severity of the situation and its complete lack of time. "You learned more than you've told us. Tell me about the cloud itself. If it's as old as you suggest, what took it so long to get here?"

Wonder Woman was still without patience. She still wanted to leap into action, wanted to go and tackle the problem head on. She wanted to go and find the Imperium and show them how bad it would be for them if they were to attack. However, she also knew full well the value of Batman's meticulous mind. She knew just how effective the plans he could come up with could be. And she could tell that his magnificent mind was working on a new one right now.

J'onn launched into his explanation. He told them everything he knew, from the clouds formation, to its turmoil under the surface of Mars, to the discovery of how things worked inside it, to the Imperium's struggles to make the cloud escape its burial, to how that was hard due to the small part of it that actually had a physical substance holding it back, to its subsequent detection of–

"We drown it," Batman cut J'onn off midstream.

The other three, Wonder Woman included, were caught a little off guard by the suddenness of that statement. They all looked at him with startled eyes. Diana, however, was not slow on the uptake. Her own mind was working now that Batman had given her the prompt she needed. She was starting to see where this plan was going. There were still some things he would have to explain to her, but she already liked where this was going. She knew that the others would too, once they caught up with her.

"Say what?" Flash blurted out, before remembering the glares that Batman was giving him at the minute and getting much more to the point. "You're going to have to explain that one in a little more depth to me, Bats. What you thinking?"

J'onn, though, was starting to understand. "The cloud; it struggles to pass through matter. It can do so, but it needs time. But how do we make this happen? We have no control..."

"Guys? Didn't you hear me?" Flash piped up again when his question went unanswered. This time Batman finally began to properly voice his plan.

"What we need most is time, time to properly understand how to get the people out of here safely and ensure that the cloud won't be doing any more damage any time soon. Burying the cloud as happened on Mars isn't an option, not with there being no facility buried deep under Metropolis that we can readily implode. But we are right on the waterfront. It won't be nearly as effective as solid matter, but if the cloud can be weighed down and held back by material than sinking it to the bottom of the ocean should slow it down, and certainly prevent it from attacking the city for the time being, allowing us to get a better plan. No doubt with their numbers the Imperium will be able to lift the cloud again, but it'll take them time, time we can use to our advantage."

"We cage the energy beneath the sea," Wonder Woman summarised, nodding in concurrence. Batman was right; this plan wasn't the be all and end all. There would still be work to do. But if the cloud was about to try and wipe out hundreds of thousands of lives, keeping it as far from them as possible was certainly a wise idea.

"OK, that makes sense. Kinda," Flash mused now that he knew more. "Aquaman's sure going to be pissed at us for putting his seas in the line of fire, mind."

"He'll have to deal with it," Batman quickly cut such trains of thought off with a no nonsense growl, leaving things open for Wonder Woman to ask the question that was truly plaguing her about this plan. They couldn't use that core again. Everything about being in there last time had been screaming at her that it wasn't a place any of them should be, no matter how brave and self-sacrificing they were.

"But how do we make that happen?" she voiced her thoughts. "How do we make the cloud sink into the ocean when the Imperium have full control over it. If the Martians' aren't willing to help us–"

"We convince them," Batman interrupted again. Wonder Woman was slightly annoyed by that, her old sense of regal propriety shining through for a moment. The dire nature of the situation helped shed such feelings from her, though.

"Believe me, we tried to," J'onn chipped in again, sounding resigned. Wonder Woman could almost literally feel the disappointment in his voice. "They are too afraid. They will not help us."

"They will if we show them they don't have to be afraid any more," Batman returned. "Fear can only be defeated two ways. Facing it or by seeing that you never had a reason to be afraid in the first place. Since the Martian's won't willingly face the Imperium, we show them that they have nothing to be scared of."

"And how do we do that?" It was Wonder Woman who voiced the question, though in truth it could have been any of them. They were all clearly thinking it.

"I learned a long time ago that the best way to defeat those who thrive on other's fears is to give them something to be afraid of," Batman simplistically answered.

Despite him not being done yet, Wonder Woman now knew exactly what he was planning. It wasn't the type of action she would normally be part of, the type of action that perfectly showed the different strategies of her and Bruce, the dark and the light. It wasn't the type of thing she would normally do, not the type of thing she would normally view as helping to spread the Themysciran ideals of peace. However, this was a very special case. This time, she knew that Batman's way was the only way.

Without pausing, even at the obvious look of realisation on her face, Batman continued on with his plan. "We know that its possible to manipulate this realm with only the power of thought. The Imperium have already tried to use that against us. Its time we used it against them. If there's as many of them as you say, a full frontal assault would be unwise. But if they want revenge, they'll want us dead more than Metropolis. We draw the Imperium to us, and then we turn the cloud itself on them. We make them see things that will have them petrified. And then we fight them when they're at their most afraid, and make sure they're even more afraid of us. We make them fearful, and we make sure the Martians see it. We make sure the Martian's see they don't have to hide in fear anymore. Then we can convince them to help us."

"Great. How do you scare a blob of living jello again?" Flash mused sarcastically, sounding not entirely convinced. Batman didn't glare at him this time, but his reaction was just as intimidating, and perhaps even more frightful. He smiled. Wickedly.

"I have some ideas."

"This could work," J'onn mused, largely drowning out Flash's gulp at the look on Batman's face. It wasn't one to be messed with. "Words will not work on M'vall and the others. Perhaps actions will. If we are to do this, I shall ensure that she and the others know of it. I shall telepathically connect with them again, so that they cannot ignore it."

"Is that safe J'onn?" Diana asked him in concern for her friend, despite knowing they all had to take risks with what was at stake. "We all saw what being that connected to them last time did to you."

"I will be in control this time," J'onn answered. "I will be able to keep things in check. This can work, but we must do it now."

"Agreed," Batman concurred. "First we need to move away from the core. We can't allow the Imperium a reference point to differentiate between what we're making them see and what they are actually seeing. Come on."

Batman did not wait for the others to react before he began stalking away, not even looking at Wonder Woman despite what they had been through just before Flash and J'onn had arrived. She let him go, taking a second before following to offer Wally a reassuring glance and gently rest a hand on J'onn's shoulder. They would all need to be ready for this fight, not afraid, not worried, not distracted.

But she didn't hang around herself any longer than that. There just wasn't the time. There was a world to save. A fight to be had. And the warrior in her was itching for the fight.

Besides, the quicker the world was saved, the quicker she and Bruce could go back and sort out any and all of the remaining issues between them.

Flash didn't live up to his trademark speed in chasing after Batman as he began to stalk away to put his plan into action. He didn't even move off quick when Wonder Woman gave chase. In fact, he even stopped J'onn from moving after them, staying rooted to where they had been stood.

What had just happened was still running through his mind, and by that he didn't mean all the hell that was breaking loose, or their new plan to stop it. Yes they were important, and no Wally wasn't foolish enough to cast them aside. He cared. He cared deeply, and he would do everything in his considerable power to stop the end of the world from coming this day. He would be ready to fight, to play his part in making Batman's plan become reality, in convincing the Martians that the bad guys weren't quite as scary as they thought – especially next to Bats.

However, none of that meant that Flash could just forget about that other thing he had just seen, not when it had been two of his closest pals. And not when it had been so surprising for him to see it.

"Hey, J'onn," he began to say softly once Wonder Woman was several paces away and not so likely to overhear. "What was happening here when we showed up... Bats and Wondy's duel of the tongues. Was that...Was it some not-so-nasty side effect of this place or was it...for real?"

J'onn actually smiled down at Flash at that, a truly genuine smile. In that moment – briefly – it was almost like Flash had helped J'onn forget all his troubles, forget all about the deadly threat to the world and the madness with his not-quite-so-dead people. This time J'onn lay a reassuring hand on Wally's shoulder, that smile broad, his eyes even glowing a bit more than normal.

"You mean you never saw the signs before?"

That was all J'onn said, cryptically, before he two began to skulk off after Batman. Flash was left even more rooted to the spot than before though. He couldn't believe it. Of all people, of all the guys out there that Wondy could have had her pick of...

He couldn't help but utter the words aloud, feeling an odd mix of pride, happiness and jealousy.

"Way to go, Bats."

And then he cast it from his mind. The other three were a fair distance away now, though not far enough that he couldn't close the gap in just a single second. As he once again began to run, Flash knew that it was time to get his game face back on.

It was time to get to work. Even for the Flash, everything else could wait until afterwards.

But when it was afterwards, then Flash would allow the thoughts to come back to him, the gossip and rumour mill to start working away inside his head.

Bats and Wondy. He could hardly believe it.

A/N:

So there you go. After the end of the thrilling World Cup, I hope you all find this enjoyable too. And on that note, have to say well done to Germany. You deserve it. And I didn't even mention the war... Except just then, but I think I got away with it.

Anyways, as usual, let me know what you all think. Who will be the lucky one to send in review number 100? Let the race begin for fabulous prizes!

(Disclaimer: there is no prizes, but review anyway)