It's been about a year since the funeral and the events and accidents that have been happening are hectic and chaotic, to say the least.

The president decided to release a statement about the day Joker was found dead in his cell. People were glad about his passing, meaning they don't have to deal with the crazed lunatic and that justice was finally brought upon the people of Gotham.

Reports have scattered throughout the country about the lack of villains, but it was just the beginning.

Once they were able to find the villain they either saw them barely alive or dead in the most excruciating way. Vandal Savage was found with his body torn in half, his organs dragged in different directions from the tear and his face got stomped on and was almost unrecognizable. Cheetah was found with her scalp ripped open, the said scalp was stuffed into her jaw and she was left hanging through the ceiling with her wrist bound, skinned apart like a piece of meat. Penguin got found lying in a tub… well what was left of him as he was laying in a pull of toxic acid. Those are to name a few. There are a lot more villains who suffered the same fate or worse.

Those who were found barely alive like Captain Cold, Giganta, Bane, etc. They all sadly passed away.

What's more difficult for them to handle the situation was that people caught wind of this and right now the whole world is divided. Some are pleased to see them gone while others disagree to some extent if it involved killing. After months of division, it had gotten to the point of president Adams and other foreign leaders called the army to help control the situation.

J'onn was in the watchtower's lab, trying to find any more clues to those murders. He was looking through one of the bruises another villain has suffered from the previous ones.

Interesting… He thought.

His eyes shot toward the clock and he realized he was ten minutes late to the meeting. Entering the conference room, Superman was already discussing something important.

He stopped and all in the room turned to the martian who was late in attendance. "I'm sorry for the tardiness, friends. Superman, carry on with the discussion please."

J'onn took his seat as Clark continued on. Flash nudged him and asked him why he came in late.

"I got lost in thought checking for sources."

He didn't seem to believe the martian but he gave a nod. The meeting went on for about an hour until Superman ended it. "Now, onto other news…

All looked at J'onn once again as he asked him.

"Found any clues that might help us?"

The martian shook his head. "Negative. Whoever they are didn't leave any traces behind. But," He showed them all of the killings that occurred on the monitor screen. "I realized that most of them are made from one person alone. A group may be able to do this, given if they are teamed or split up, but the problem we have here is that some of the marks left on their bodies are very similar or the same as the others. That is until a few more bodies showed up…"

"So you're saying there was one person who was doing all these killings until they decided to hire more buddies to do them?" John concluded as the martian nodded.

"Yes. I've taken some DNA and blood samples in case we might find a trace of the killer's DNA in them. So far, none have shown."

"Ugh!" Flash flicked his arms up dramatically. "This is almost impossible! We've been trying to catch this person for months and it's already November! Can't we catch a break?!"

"Crime never rests, Flash, you know that. But I do agree with him. We've been trying to catch them with no plan or clue like a bunch of headless chickens." John agreed with the scarlet speedster.

"And we have a three-year-old to take care of," Shayera added. "John and I can't spend most of our time hunting them down, we need to have some family time with our son. And Clark you have a pregnant wife to take care of."

"As much as I don't want to give up, I agree with them. We have other priorities right now and we can't exactly push them out of our life." Clark confessed. "But that doesn't mean we should let our guards down. Now onto another issue… Batman and Wonder Woman."

"They're getting suspicious aren't they?" Shayera guessed.

Clark nodded. "News reports are talking about it. After the feed got cut off people have been talking about what happened. A lot of them understand that Diana was out of action for the last few 3 months, considering what she did, but they haven't seen both heroes in this long period of time. People are suggesting that there's something that we're not telling."

"They're right though. We didn't announce to the public that Wonder Woman would be leaving the league nor tell them that her husband died. Even the government didn't know about it." Shayera expressed.

"Some of my coworkers talked about it a few days ago," Flash mentioned to them.

"What did they say?"

"Sallie told them that we were hiding a big secret from the public. That Wonder Woman actually killed Batman. A few agreed but others were a little hesitant to jump into it. Eddie told them that the government was planning this all along. They didn't care to stop the Joker."

"Well, the first one got that right, but the second one? I'm not so sure about that." Shayera confessed. Looking at the red speedster.

"So, what are we gonna do about the rumors and allegations? Ignore them?" John looked at Clark if he had any answers. He shook his head and announced his plan to everyone.

"We're not going to ignore them. Let's leave it alone until we have the plan to confront it."

The others agreed to it and Flash had an idea that could possibly stop the rumors from spreading.

"Hey, guys… why don't we try contacting Diana?"

"No." Shayera immediately disagreed.

"But一"

"Absolutely not. People talk, let them. You can't control every conversation a person has. When Clark told us she would leave the league we were a little bittersweet about it but we respected her decision. She's been dealing with too much and I don't want to burden her with our situation right now. All of them."

Clark sided with Shayera as well as the others. Diana and the Wayne family have been dealing with a lot of problems. He rarely ever saw them that much anymore and whenever he visits the manor Alfred would tell him that she was visiting her mother at the embassy or busy dealing with Bruce's company. Dick took over as the new CEO and without Lucius to guide him, it was difficult for the man. Diana stepped in to help as she had been taught by Bruce in case he or Lucius wasn't there to watch over the company. They, of course, hid the information from the public about him as CEO, and whenever the public was suspicious about Bruce Wayne being absent they created a camouflage to fool them.

The other family members became distant. Some avoided them completely. On the titan tower, they see Damian but he would ignore them. Cassie and Tim kept their relationship steady throughout the months they've been together, although the former wouldn't tell them anything out of respect for him and the family. Jason disappeared two months ago, no one knew where he was but Clark had a feeling Alfred or Diana knew where he was. Cassandra trained harder and rarely left the cave. Barbara talked with them sometimes but lately, she hadn't called them for about a month now, even the birds of prey.

"Ok, ok. We won't call her. Happy now?" He conceded and she relaxed from her seat.

"Ok. Looks like this meeting is adjourned. J'onn, contact us if there's any emergency or if you've found any lead we can start with."

The martian nodded as everyone but him went out of the room to do their own thing.

"What if…" J'onn wondered as he looked at all the evidence set out in front of him.

XXX

"How are you doing, Lois? Is the little one causing any trouble?"

Clark asked his wife as he got home after a tiring day of leading the new article about the war between the two countries. Lois was on the couch, working on her current article. "Nope. The little one must've tired herself out. Good thing too or else I wouldn't have finished up my work and I'll be in a crabby mood."

"Wouldn't we want that now do we?" He chuckled but stopped as soon as he saw his wife's face.

"Uh… hey would you look at the time, better go make dinner." He quickly sped towards the kitchen. He may be Superman but his wife can be terrifying when mad.

After making dinner the two had a wonderful meal. Both relaxed on the couch with Lois resting her head on Clark's shoulder and him placing his arm around her. It was a touching and heartwarming moment, but Lois had to break it.

"So, how did the meeting go?"

"It was… difficult at best."

"You're still trying to find the guy, am I right?"

He closed his eyes as he sighed tiredly. "Yes. They killed two more near New York and riots have been getting a little worse."

"Tell me about it," His wife agreed. "Just this morning, people gathered around the streets and protested to let this person continue what they were doing. The police came and tried to separate the crowd, but it almost became bloody."

"Lois, please don't tell me you一" Clark began but his wife interrupted him.

"Slow down there tiger. First of all, no. I wasn't on the street when it happened, I was in my office. Two, me and the baby are fine. Well, as fine as a seven-month pregnant woman can be."

The two went silent again as they stared at the TV. Clark had wanted to talk to Lois if she'd heard anything from Diana, but he was hesitant to ask. However, his wife saw the conflict on his face and gave him the answer he wanted to hear.

"No, I haven't heard anything from her. She hasn't even been answering my calls."

"Have you tried calling their house?"

"Yeah. It's either leaving a voice mail or Alfred quickly greeting me and telling me that Diana's unavailable."

Hearing her words made Clark worry. It's been weeks since she had talked with Lois and it made him sigh in relief that she was still contacting them, even though they hadn't seen each other in a while. This is really concerning to him but he's respecting her space and privacy, but maybe…

"You want to visit her. Don't you?" She forced him to look at her as she held one of his hands.

"What? Lois, I didn't一"

"You didn't say it out loud vocally but inwardly you want to. And you're pretty easy to read Kent."

To be fair, Lois wanted to check on her friend as well. Every time they held a conversation on the phone she sounded so distant, and guarded whenever the former asked her how her life has been after the funeral. Diana answered in short sentences and she'd move on to another topic that doesn't involve her, preferably her and Clark's life, especially their baby.

She saw how Clark had that look on his face when he was staring off into the distance. He was missing the good times when everyone was happy and enjoying life. Now, one of their best friends is gone and there's a possibility the other might disappear from their life. The year was hard on them all and now things seemed to look worse.

"And you're not the only one. I'm worried about them too. Especially Diana."

She combed the hair out of his eyes and massaged his scalp. He relaxed under her touch as he leaned his head against the cushion.

"I know it sounds ridiculous but I feel like I'm starting to lose her too. Losing Bruce was difficult enough but her as well? I just… I just don't know what to do anymore. It's like whenever I try to do something good something gets taken away from me. Maybe this is my punishment for failing to save both of them."

He reluctantly admitted. That's what he was honestly feeling. The death of his best friend and the state of the other felt like it was his fault.

"It's not your fault, you know that." She kissed his forehead as he barely managed a nod to her response.

"Hey, why don't we try calling Alfred? There's a possibility Diana could be at their home this weekend."

She tried to cheer him up with the thought of them visiting her. Clark felt a little hopeful but he brought it down.

"I don't know Lois, I don't want to intrude…" He tried to argue with her, but she wasn't having it.

"Too late." She dialed the manor's number and it engaged for a few seconds until someone picked up.

"Wayne's residence, to whom am I speaking?" Alfred's voice can be heard on the phone.

"Hey, Alfred." Lois greeted as Clark listened.

"Good evening to you, Mis Kent. Is there any particular reason why you called tonight?"

"We were wondering if Diana's there?"

"... She's here, yes. I'm guessing you want to visit the weekend?"

"Yeah. That's the plan unless she isn't available of course, we don't want to intrude."

She heard Alfred having a conversation with someone and a little shuffling. The person speaking on the phone shocked her and her husband.

"Lois?"

"Diana! How一how are you? It's been a while since we last talked."

Diana chuckled. "It has, hasn't it? I'm sorry for the avoidance. There was a lot to do, especially with the embassy and the company."

"Don't worry about it. It's difficult enough to manage one, let alone two. How's Dick handling the business?"

"He's been doing well for the past few months. There were a few setbacks but we managed to solve them quickly, thank Hera. How about you? How's the baby?"

"As well as she can be. My back's been aching from carrying the extra weight around thanks to this guy."

She pointed at the man who caused it and he looked at her sheepishly with a brush on his face.

"...Clark's there?"

"He has been the whole time." She passed the phone to him and he cleared his throat.

"Uh… hey Di." He greeted her with uncertainty. The line went quiet for a moment and Clark feared that Diana might hang up, but thankfully she responded.

"Hello, Clark. It's nice to hear your voice again."

"Nice to hear you too, Di."

"How are the others fairing?"

"They've been fine. Shayera said you haven't talked to her the last few weeks."

"I'll talk with her tomorrow. Alfred said you two wanted to visit the weekend, right?"

Clark swallowed the saliva forming in his mouth. He was scared he didn't hear her right. "Yeah. Yeah, we wanted to visit you, unless you're… busy? If you are then we understand一" He started to ramble off until Diana stopped him.

"No, no. I'm free this weekend, surprisingly enough. You can visit anytime just be careful with Damian. He's still a bit aggressive so try not to anger him too much."

"Really? That一that's great! See you then."

He turned, beaming to look at Lois who was also beaming at him. Finally, after all these long months they would see her again. Looks like Clark's day ended on a good note.