- 3 -

Glancing down at the Wonder Woman costume cladding my trim young body, I couldn't help but smile. I'd awoken yesterday as a middle aged waitress, but I would be falling asleep soon as a beautiful princess. So much had happened in the twenty two hours since I last slept that I was now feeling pretty fatigued. It was a relief that at last I could allow myself to sleep. Mentally instructing the invisible jet I was piloting to head west I settled back and closed my eyes.

Just as I had the first time I was young, I was heading to where Hollywood lay, a place overflowing with beautiful men. Now that I was Wonder Woman I could have my pick of them, a situation I intended to exploit to the full. With so much lost time to make up for, and so many handsome young men to make up for it with, I could hardly wait to get started.

So it was that I drifted off into the land of slumber, dreaming happily of pretty boys as we flew on, following the sun to California.

As I dreamed so those pretty boys slowly transformed into members of the Justice League. I dreamed the League and I were battling a hulking blue alien. The beast was being tackled by Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and the Flash, and I was giving as good as the guys. I was hyper-aware of how amazing I looked in my costume with its red and gold bustier and star-spangled bikini-bottom, my tiara glinting in the sunshine. I was gorgeous. My long, dark hair swept around sexily as I threw my golden lasso over the alien's head, pinning his tentacles to his side. The boys rushed over to congratulate me, their eyes filled with both admiration and lust. I was so happy to see this, and I basked in the male adoration that had been denied to me for so long.

Then I blinked, and when I looked up I found myself alone, staring at a mirrored wall that stretched off to infinity in both directions. One glance into it was enough.

"No!" I cried out, horrified to see middle-aged, overweight Maggie Jones staring back at me. "I won't go back to being you, I won't!"

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown in my face. The shock woke me up, but it didn't throw me out of the dream. I was still dreaming yet somehow awake within the dream and able to think with my rational mind.

Glancing to my left, I saw a woman in the distance, a woman I instantly recognized: Diana. She was in her Wonder Woman costume and frowning, as if puzzled by what the mirror was showing her. A glance at the mirror told me why. She had no reflection!

I decided to approach Diana from the rear, walking in a long arc to do so. Something about all this was setting off alarm bells and I couldn't escape the feeling this wasn't only my dream but hers too, that we were psychically linked in some fashion. She would've been abed for hours back in Iowa whereas I had only just fallen asleep, but there was an overlap there that made sharing a dream at least chronologically possible.

I stopped in front of the mirror a few feet from Diana and made a show of examining my reflection. While I studied it I could feel her studying me. She frowned at the name badge pinned to my waitress uniform, as if unable to make out the name printed on it.

"Hello," I said, smiling and turning to face her.

"You can see me?!" she replied, surprised.

"Of course I can."

"But I can't even see myself."

"I know," I lied. Then the truth hit me.

She didn't know who she was! In that moment of revelation and intuition, I knew with absolute certainty what was going on. This dreamscape was her sub-conscious.

"I may be the one person who is able to see you," I said, my mind racing, "to truly see you."

Unlike the ordinary humans my son Frank had so far used his powers on, Diana was something more. I didn't know exactly what, but with her connection to the gods of myth, and despite appearances to the contrary, she had not completely succumbed to his powers yet. I needed her to accept her transformation in this dreamscape too, or there was a very real danger of our identity swap coming undone. Frank's power was concealing the truth of who she was from her, hence her inability to see her reflection. She didn't know who she was so it was up to me to reveal the truth to her, the new truth I needed her to accept.

"Can you help me?" she asked, a note of pleading in her voice.

"I think we can help each other," I said, constructing a scenario on the fly. "I sought you out because I believe you're the only person who can free me."

"Free you from what?"

"From this," I said, sweeping a hand downwards to indicate my body.

"I don't understand."

"This isn't the real me," I explained, spinning my yarn, "not as I should be. And I can't become who I'm supposed to be without you."

"Tell me how I can help."

"At the base of my neck is a seam, one I can't reach. I need you to pull it open for me. Once you've got it started I can do the rest."

If she believed me then there would be a seam, for this was a dream, and dream-logic applied. Or so I hoped.

I turned my back to Diana and held my breath as her fingers sought the seam. I breathed a sigh of relief when she found it. I used everything I had to will things so that when she prised it open with her fingers a mass of lush, dark hair spilled out.

"Thank you, I can take it from here," I said.

I reached backwards, a hand grabbing each side of the opening she'd made and pulled the flesh back over my head, the real head beneath. Diana watched as I struggled out of what was now revealed to her as some sort of bodysuit. I tugged it down over my shoulders, past my waist, and on to the ground, where I stepped out of it. Far from being an overweight and middle-aged woman my true, stunningly beautiful self was now revealed to her as someone younger, thinner and - somehow - taller. She watched me, eyes like saucers as I straightened my tiara and adjusted the glinting gold lasso hanging from the belt of my costume. She was clearly surprised, but I could tell she was accepting the evidence of her eyes, that this was me as I really was. I was now her physical twin, both of us attired as Wonder Woman, but being unable to see or feel herself she was unaware of this.

"You have set a princess free," I said, giving a joyous laugh of relief as I shook my head to spread out that glorious hair.

"I should know your name but I don't," she said. "Who *are* you?"

Time to bring this home.

"I'm Diana, Princess of Themyscira, but I'm also known by another name."

"Wonder Woman," she said. "You're Wonder Woman."

"Yes I am, and I have a gift for you, something magical. Come over here." I coaxed her, "and step into the skin I just shed."

She did as I asked, and together we pulled it up her body. It was working, by God it was working!

"Slide your own arms into its arms and make sure your fingers go all the way down. Good, good, that's it. We're almost there."

Pulling the head up over hers, I pinched the edges of the seam closed then smoothed this with my thumb until any sign of a seam that might be opened again had disappeared. Almost done.

"A perfect fit" I declared as she examined her reflection, "Just as I knew it would be. I may have had to wear that flesh until now, but it was always meant for you. Where it was my prison it will be your liberation."

"I'm middle-aged and overweight," she said, staring at her doughy face and frowning as she patted her hair bun and ran pudgy fingers over her double chin. She sounded dubious.

"Yes and it's the perfect look for you," I reassured her, smiling encouragingly and giving her shoulder a friendly squeeze. "Being fat and middle-aged suits you, it really does. Now that we're both how we should've been all along I'm sure you'll soon get used to it. It'll come to feel as natural and as comfortable to you as being young and pretty feels to me."

"If you say so," she said, uncertainly. She looked down at the name badge she was wearing.

"Maggie," she said, "my name is Maggie."

Ah ha! She could now read it, a sure sign that she was beginning to accept this was the real her. Just a little more nudging and that acceptance would become total...

"That's right," I said, "but what about your surname? Surely you must know that too?"

She frowned, trying to summon it. Then she smiled.

"Jones," she said, "I'm Maggie Jones."

"Yes, you are," I said, pleased. "And the clothes? Do you remember why you're wearing what you are, Maggie?"

"I do. It's a waitress uniform, because I'm a waitress."

"Excellent!" I said, clapping my hands together happily.

Maggie nodded and grinned at me. I'd done it!

Someone else was approaching, but he was almost upon us before I realised this. When I caught sight of the newcomer, a young man in a smart, grey military uniform, I let out a genuine squeal of delight.

"Steve!" I said, throwing myself into his arms. He spun me around then put me back down.

"Hello, angel," he said, grinning.

"Steve, this is Maggie," I said excitedly. "And Maggie this is Colonel Steve Trevor, my boyfriend. Isn't he gorgeous?"

He was very handsome, also tall, square-jawed, and blond. With my youth and beauty it was only right and proper for me to have a boyfriend like Steve. Maggie stood watching enviously as I tossed his cap aside and we embraced, me pressing my glorious young body into his, kissing passionately. When we came up for air after several wonderful minutes of this, his arms still around my slender waist and mine on his shoulders, I turned to Maggie, poor, fat, middle-aged Maggie, who might pine helplessly after him but who could never hope to attract a man as fine as Steve. I smiled like the cat who'd got the cream.

"Oh, and Maggie?" I purred. "I think I'll take that coffee now."

I woke shortly before the jet crossed into California, sunlight streaming in through its transparent body. The dream had been very vivid, and it didn't drift away with my waking as dreams will leaving behind only vague and fragmentary impressions, but remained a strong, clear and delightful memory. I ran my hands over my lithe young body, breathing a sigh of relief on finding I was still Princess Diana. Today was the first day of the rest of her life, and I was her.

I knew now that I always would be.