Trinity

….harlequin’s smile.”

For the second time, the ominous warning of a harlequin plaguing his dreams and his future surfaced.

Bruce Wayne had no idea what any of it meant but he did remember the grotesque parody of a smile appearing in his hallucinations when Deimos had attempted to break him. Now, Eris was dangling the same threat in his face. Even when all this was over? Or maybe she knew something that he didn’t and was simply using it to her advantage. Maybe, she had no real power, except what she could incite, taking advantage of man’s own weaknesses.

“Diana, we need to move on,” he ignored the goddess who had sent Clark running after Lois because of the beast Ixion.

“Agreed Bruce,” Diana replied, preparing to use Harmonia’s Talisman once more. “Our work is done here Goddess, unless you would dare stop me and face the same wrath as your brother.” Her blue eyes ignited with challenge.

“You will find,” Eris hissed as the smoke around them thickened, “that I am not so easily defeated daughter of Hippolyta, your alliance of the flesh with this mortal has made you weak, tainted your purity. How can you be champion when you lust for men?”

Diana bristled at the accusation but was unable to deny that she didn’t not feel warmly towards men now but not for the reasons Eris so crassly extolled.

Since arriving in the Patriarch’s World, she had made two men her allies. Kal, whose abilities far exceeded her own yet behaved as if he could have been Amazon born. They shared the same views of the world, that people no matter who they were, had good in them, that it was worth drawing out if possible. He understood how out of step she felt with his world and had been a teacher helping her understand it. Instinctively, Diana knew that he would be her friend as long as they lived, that it was something for the ages.

And then there was Bruce.

Whom she did not understand. Grief and pain had blighted his life but it had also transformed into something strong, something no god could envision or considered when fashioning man from clay. He bore no power, no bloodline shared by his contemporaries in the past. This was no demi-god, no Hercules nor Perseus but Hera, the strength of him. The singular, dedicated will that drove him left her in awe. She did not know if this was the love that Kal felt for his Lois but with Bruce, Diana could understand its power. She might very well love this man, though she suspected, it was not in either of their fates for her to possess him. They would be always belong to each other but would they be together? She doubted it.

“Diana, she’s just trying to stall you, we’ve got two more silos to get too, she knows we don’t have a lot of time.” Bruce’s words cut through her thoughts and reminded her of their mission.

Suddenly, Colonel Trevor and his men thundered into the launch room, having dealt with Hayes, their weapons drawn, ready to fire in the face of this new threat. The room filled with cameras had shown them that there was an intruder present that was none of the heroes who had averted the near disaster of a short time ago.

“Stay back!” Diana ordered but it was too late as they opened fire.

The bullets exploded loudly out of their barrels, a deadly barrage aimed towards the goddess who had been using her powers of manipulation to delay the Amazon Princess from usurping the next phase in her father’s plans. They had no power to hurt a child of Olympus but Diana knew that a goddess accustomed having men worship her in the past, would not take kindly to anyone firing upon her like she was some common criminal.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Eris roared as the soldier’s bullets halted in midair before a sweep of her arm, allowed them to fall to the ground harmlessly.

“Hold your fire!” Trevor shouted, realizing that their guns may be useless. “Grenades!”

“Get your men out of here,” Bruce ordered and slipped a phosphorous bomb from his belt, tossing at the goddess to distract her from unleashing her worst on the soldiers who had no idea what they were dealing with. The explosion was blinding as it was meant to be but not harmful. Eris let out a cry of indignation, her fury at these pathetic attempts to harm her evidence by the reddening glow of eyes.

“You dare strike a god!” She bellowed and suddenly, the room was hit with a blast of cold so strong, it penetrated the Kevlar around his body as if he was wearing nothing. Almost as if he was dropped in liquid nitrogen, Bruce felt his limbs cramp up, his spine straightening in discomfort as the blizzard around them began to shatter instruments. He was driven to his knees while Trevor and his men were frozen in place, having gotten no further than the doorway before the cold had overtaken them.

Diana was already launching herself at Eris, determined to stop the goddess. Streaking across the small space like a bullet, she slammed into Eris in mid sternum, shoving Ares daughter against the wall and then through it. Wasting no time, she continued the attack, more than ready to deal with this goddess as she had dealt with her brother not long ago.

Eris roared in fury as she landed on the ground of the adjoining room, stunned but unhurt. Eris was not accustomed to physical combat and had been taken by surprise but she was a goddess and it was time this Amazon upstart understood that. As Diana flew towards her, Eris back handed the incoming Princess so hard, she was thrown back like a rag doll.

“You will not kill me as you did my brother!” Eris growled. “This is not Tartarus and we are not equals!”

Diana had been thrown backwards, slamming and shattering the instruments on top of the control panel she landed on. Beneath her, the cold had kept the electronics from sparking as Diana rolled off it and landed on her hands and knees. Like Kal, pain was something that she seldom felt. The gifts from the gods had made her stronger than most of her Amazon sisters. Groaning as she clutched her side, feeling the flaring pain that came from broken ribs, Diana clenched her fists and started to get up when she felt a gloved hand on her forearm, halting her.

“Diana.”

Bruce had crawled to her, his cape and cowl covered in eyes, the exposed part of his face revealing his skin was turning blue. He was shaking as he looked up at her and a surge of horror filled her at how near death he seemed.

“Br... Batman,” she corrected herself before she inadvertently exposed his identity. Not that it mattered much since Trevor and his men were in the same state as Bruce, freezing to death quickly. She saw the icicles forming around him and knew that even with his exceptional endurance, he was but mortal. He could not survive this temperature much longer. He and Trevor’s men were being encased in the icy blizzard that Eris had unleashed upon them and they could not last long under such extreme temperature.

“Diana,” Bruce spoke through gritted teeth, the words escaping him in a raspy, shuddering demand. “You have to go now. You have to stop the other missiles. She’s doing this to stall you! So that they can be launched!”

“But I cannot leave you!” Diana declared, anguished at the choice she was being forced to make. She knew her duty, knew that she had a destiny to fulfill, to halt the onslaught of Ares before he reduced the world to ash but she also knew that to leave him was let him die. How could she? “I...cannot.” She glared at Eris who was approaching, dark smoke swirling about her like a cloud of malevolence, her face glorying with triumph at manipulating Diana with the same trap she had placed Kal in earlier. How had it come to this?

“Diana,” Bruce’s gauntlet tightened his grip around her arm, steeling himself to her worried expression. “You wanted to know what love between men and women is like,” he spoke firmly, his lips were turning blue, the cold starting to turn his cells into ice. “It's like this. It’s not pretty Diana, its pain and its anguish and its sacrifice. It’s being able to go on when you know that you’ll be alone, what little bit of joy that love gave is all that you’ll ever have but that moment Diana, that moment is what’s going to see you through, do you understand? You can live on that moment forever.”

“Yes,” she nodded. She did understand and he was right. She had to go. Leaning forward, she kissed him on the lips, giving him the heat of her flesh for an all too brief moment. This was not a kiss stolen but one she gave him from her heart, for one who occupied a new place in it. It was his place and even if she lost him, she would hold the memory of their brief love in her heart forever.

“Wait for me if you can my love,” she whispered and then pulled away.

Bruce answered her with a nod as he watched disengaged his grip and stand upright, her stance every much the warrior going into battle. She faced Eris with defiance and spoke with words dripping with challenge, no hint of surrender or the heartache he knew she must have felt at having to leave him. He fell in love with her then, hopelessly and completely. If he died today, he’d die going into the next world without regrets and infinitely proud.

“You will delay me no longer Goddess,” Diana said, the word dripping with contempt as she unhooked Harmonia’s talisman from her belt and flashed the face of it at Eris, bathing her in its glow as it came alive in her hands. “Take me to your master!” She demanded, though Bruce suspected that the talisman took its cue from Diana on a more metaphysical level rather than the spoken word.

“YOU WILL NOT STOP HIM…..!” Eris screeched in fury, knowing that her attempt to prevent Diana from leaving had failed.

The glow of the talisman became a blinding flash of light that made Bruce clamp his eyes shut, however, he knew that when he opened them again, Diana would be gone.

*****

When the blindingly light vanished, Diana found herself in yet another steel room not unlike the one she had just left. Somewhat larger in size than the launch bay she had left Bruce, there was a thick glass panel making up one section of wall. Looking through it, Diana’s blood chilled and realized that she was staring into the enclosure where man’s deadliest weapon was being contained. She could see the snub nose of the weapons, protruding half out of the earth, the doors above them open, allowing them escape into the sky.

Turning her attention back to the room itself, she noted that this one was filled with solders and men in white coats that did not look like warriors, who barely noted her presence at first. At their feet, completely ignored, was a dead body on the floor, lying at the base of an instrument panel that bore great resemblance to the one Steven Hayes had tried to activate before she, Kal and Bruce had intervened. Blood and viscera was splattered across the floor, while the gun still clenched in the man’s hands, told Diana how his fate had been met. Was this what would have happened to Steven Hayes had they not acted?

Was this his reward after he had turned the key? It would appear so since the key in this panel was turned fully clockwise.

Meanwhile, the men who did not look like soldiers, raced back and forth across the remaining instruments, their fingers moving furiously over keyboards, while others had opened the metal panel, trying to access the wires beneath them. The urgency and fear etched over their faces was palpable as was the tension in the air.. They were working furiously, trying to reach an end she that might be beyond them already, their desperation marking their every move.

“Кто вы??*” Someone shouted at her in a language Diana did not understand. It was a voice full of authority and demand. “KЧто вы здесь делаете?*”

Diana turned around to find herself facing a group of soldiers, lead by a woman wearing a uniform not unlike Colonel Trevor’s with slight differences to distinguish the nation it represented. Like Philipus, Diana thought immediately and was somewhat surprised that she appeared to be in command, in charge of men it seemed. Perhaps the Patriarch’s World was not as backward as she believed. The woman was aiming a gun in her direction, supported by the three male soldiers who flanked her protectively.

“Please,” Diana spoke in English for that was the only language of the Patriarch’s World that she had thus far learned. “I mean you no harm,” she implored, hoping a sister would be less hostile than a man. “What has happened here?” She asked, though she suspected she had most of the answer already.

At Diana’s words in English, the woman’s expression showed puzzlement and was soon joined by the men with her, who jabbered in the same tongue Diana did not understand. They were gesturing with the barrel of their weapons towards her costume, as if they recognized it. As they spoke, Dian recognized, in their string of words, one phrase at least. The phrase ‘Wonder Woman’.

Diana knew of the title the media had bestowed her within the Patriarch’s World, just as they had done to Kal. Although she thought it somewhat silly, if these people recognized her by it, then she would more than welcome its use to help her cause now. “Yes,” she nodded in confirmation. “I am Wonder Woman!”

The woman looked racked with indecision but glanced at the men working at the panels before her face showed her reaching some kind of conclusion. For once, Diana was actually grateful for her celebrity and hoped his woman understood that she wished to help.

“I am Captain Natalia Ulyanov, Wonder Woman,” she finally introduced herself.. What are you doing here in Russia?” She asked in perfect if somewhat heavily accented English.

Diana did not mince words. If the situation was as desperate as she suspected then time was of the essence. “I believe that there is danger that someone is attempting to launch your weapons to precipitate a full scale war with other nations of your world. I have just come from America where one of their soldiers had attempted to launch their weapons of war. We were able to halt him in time,” she explained but surmised that here, they had not been so successful. “Has a weapon been launched?” She asked quickly, certain that one had but needing confirmation.

Captain Ulyanov’s eyes widened in shock at Diana’s narration of events and her gaze shifted to the dead man. “This is Major Andrei Nikolaevich. Five minutes ago, he launched a missile into the atmosphere, an SS-18 Satan, in bound for the United States, specifically Gotham City.” Her face showed her horror at what was to happen without needing any further elaboration.

Gotham? Diana’s eyes narrowed. No doubt an act of petty vengeance either by Ares himself or Eris in retaliation for Bruce’s assistance to her in this quest. It did not matter what the target, Diana decided. She was going to stop it. If she didn’t thousands, nay millions, would die.

“You are unable to stop it?” It was more of a statement than it was a question. The desperation she was seeing in this room was the attempt to prevent the death of billions but they were fighting a losing battle and it showed in their urgent attempts now.

“Our technicians are doing everything we can but we cannot disarm it.” the Captain said quickly. “Once launched, our ability to disarm is difficult because it is assumed that the tampering may be the result of an attack by our enemies.”

Diana sighed, the paranoia of the Patriarch’s world never ceased to amaze her. However, this was not the time to debate their foolishness. “If it cannot be disarmed, then it can be redirected?” She asked, already walking towards the glass.

“Not from here,” the Captain shook her head, looking as if she had already considered the possibility. “There is no way to turn it around...”

“Yes there is,” Diana said firmly. In fact, the moment Diana had realized that the missile had been launched, she knew that it was the only way to halt the beast on its path of destruction. Looking at the Captain, Diana asked, needing the answer to only one other question before she went after it.

“Where is it now?”

******

When Diana disappeared, Bruce had hoped that Eris would have gone after her, allowing him the chance to save not only Colonel Trevor and his men but himself also. However, the Goddess of Discord had remained, probably to satiate some twisted desire to watch him die for keeping Diana true to her quest, to break free of Eris’ emotional manipulation.

As it was, the control room was covered in ice. Trevor and his mean who hadn’t dressed for the weather had succumbed first. Bruce didn’t know if they were dead but hypothermia would surely be sending them on their way by now. As it was, he could barely move. His own costume had given him some shielding but not enough. Absurdly he thought that should he survive this, he ought to consider adding thermal insulation of some sort into his suit.

Never know when some wacko might decide to hit me with an ice gun or something.

“You will die human,” Eris’ voice boomed in her ear as she watched him, the hatred radiating from her like something tangible. “And with you all that you care about, your friends, your loved ones and most of all, your precious city! That putrefying monument to man’s evil you think you’re strong enough to save. The arrogance of you!”

The clouds of smoke swirling around her feet, kept him partially concealed from her sight as his hand inched towards his utility belt. It was hard to do, his fingers were frozen and difficult to flex but he fought to claim every inch of movement he could manage. Ignoring the pain, ignoring the threat against Gotham, Bruce Wayne, the Batman, focused his singular will on nothing but what he had to do. Finally his fingers found the utility belt and the particular compartment he needed to find.

“Maybe I won’t save it,” he spoke, glaring at her through the white eye slit of his cowl. “Maybe it will kill me but I’m willing to die. Are you?” He hissed and tossed the thermate grenade at her.

The explosion was loud and for a brief moment, Bruce relished the intense heat it generated as if he’d been hit by a bolt of lightning. Eris staggered back, the concussive force taking her by surprise and giving Bruce the chance to move. The temperature was still dropping but the thermate provided a brief respite and the heat allowed him to move. He had only a limited supply of the grenades but he’d need every one of them. Scrambling from beneath her feet, he tossed another in the proximity of Trevor and his men, hoping the heat would be enough to give them a few more minutes of precious life.

“Parlor tricks!” Eris laughed as Bruce ran through the hole she’d created when Diana through her through the launch room wall. “You would use these parlor tricks to fight a goddess!!?”

Bruce didn’t answer because he was realistic that he couldn’t hold out long but it wasn’t in him to just give up. He may die today but he wasn’t going down easily. “Whatever works,” he said mostly to himself and threw another grenade, mentally counting how many he actually had.

The blast erupted near Eris feet this time and in an effort and the dark cloak she wore was quickly ablaze. Eris made no attempt to disrobe and the rising flames brought the temperature in the room up a little more. From his hiding place, Bruce saw Trevor and his men starting to come out of it.

“This has been amusing mortal,” Eris snorted “but I have far more important matters to attend. My father’s destiny awaits and you have run out of time.”
With that, she blasted the wall with energy he could not define but saw the metal wall between them melt like molten lava. Fully exposed to her, there was no where left to hide. Bruce knew the next blast from her finger tips would finish him. If she could be distracted long enough for Trevor and his men to recover, they might be able to escape and Bruce could live with that, even he wouldn’t for long.

Getting into the best position to avoid the blast when it came, Bruce readied himself when suddenly, a streak of red and blue smashed through the wall behind Eris with a loud and thunderous screech of tearing steel and concrete. Eris was lifted off her feet from behind, her arms flailing about in confusion and fury as she was dragged out of the room by a comet wearing an S shield. For the next few minutes, the world was a sound of smashing concrete and steel, the thunderous raging of a goddess and the raining debris as levels of the bunker were penetrated.

Bruce watched the glimmer of sunlight penetrate through the floors Clark had smashed through taking Eris out and thought with a little smile, that sometimes, it felt very good to be saved by Superman.

******

Clark was still in pain. The wound to his side had not healed as well as it ought to. He should have taken time to rest, to recover but there was none to spare. Having left Metropolis with Ixion, the man of steel had left the beast in the one place he knew it could do no damage. Later on, when Ares was defeated and his plans to destroy the world ended once and for all, he would ask Diana how to imprison the mad titan for good. For now, his solution would have to do.

“UNHAND ME!” Eris raged as she was borne out of the bunker by the Kryptonian devil that had greater powers than Heracles himself. They left the confines of the earth and were now bound skyward. She had no difficult flying but his grip upon her was iron and she could not break free.

“Gladly,” Clark said promptly, letting her go and then super speeding around her body so that he was facing her.

This time, he gave no quarter, cared nothing for the fact that she a deity. All he knew was he needed to get rid of her and if that meant unleashing all the strength he had at his disposal thanks to the battle with Ixion, then so be it. With the same backhand, she had delivered to Diana earlier, Clark’s punch shattered bone or what passed for bone on a god and sent her flying through the air, until she was a dot in the distance, still bellowing with outrage.

When she was no longer in sight, at least sight he didn’t need enhanced vision to see, he flew straight up into the air, soaring past the clouds and the startled birds that happened by, nearing the yellow star that gave him his great strength. Closing his eyes, Clark extended his arms, letting soul nourish him, repairing the damage that had been done to him in his earlier battle. Feeling the warmth of the sunshine on his face reminded Clark of those youthful days on the farm, where he and Pa would be working together. Those were simpler times, he lamented.

Glancing down at the wound on his body, Clark saw the flesh healing itself, cells repairing themselves thanks to the ministrations of Sol’s life giving rays. In a matter of minutes, the flesh had completely healed with no sign of the earlier injury. Not even a scar. His uniform however, remained torn and would need repair that he’d have to conduct at the fortress when he was able to get back there.

For the moment however, he needed to get back to Bruce and find out where Diana was.

******

Where Diana was at present was chasing the tail of an ICBM flying across the North Atlantic. She had caught up to the thing when it had flown over Finland. Diana had never flown so fast in her life. Pursuing the beast capable of slaughtering thousands in a second, she marveled at is speed and prayed that the gift that Hermes had given her would be up to the task of catch up to it. She would have tried to capture it over land but the fear that any interference to it over a populated centre could result in it exploding prematurely held her restraint.

However, the instant it had passed the shores of Great Britain, Diana had poured on more speed, using air currents and any other method she could devise to give her more velocity as she narrowed the gap between herself and the missile. As it was, her skin felt like it was peeling off her bones. While she was built strong and capable of resisting much, she was not invulnerable like Kal. However, she ignored the pain because lives were at stake.

The wind rushed through her hair, causing it to follow her like a dark banner of jet. Those who might witness the sight would see a blur of red and gold chasing the modern world version of the harbinger of death. Beneath them, Diana saw boats and birds and waves cresting on the ocean in magnificence ripples of tides and currents. The idea that Ares’ plot would decimate all this, compelled her forward, making her determined to reach the thing that would preempt Ares’ terrible war.

After what seemed like an eternity, she neared the missile close enough to use her lasso. Fighting the waves of heat that blazed from its rocket powered engines like an inferno, Diana swung the lariat and looped it around the body of the weapon. Pulling back with all the strength that she had, the missile jerked upward awkwardly, its snub nose lifting into air. However, even with its course slightly adjusted, it was not redirected enough to fly harmlessly into space and ploughed ahead, dragging Diana along with it, determined to reach its destination.

Refusing to give up, Diana pulled back again, trying to gain traction by creating enough obstruction to the wind currents to pull it off its trajectory. Her arms ached and her skin blistered but she would not yield. Too many lives were at stake for her to fail. Changing tactics, she began to reel the missile towards her, shortening the length of the rope between herself and the weapon. The missile fought her stubbornly and Diana didn’t even realize when she groaning in pain, the lariat digging into her palms as she pulled.

“YOU WILL YIELD!” She shouted at it and then swung her reach wide, causing the missile to be yanked completely off its trajectory, until it was twirling like a propeller above her head. The rocket engines added to its velocity creating a whirlwind of air until Diana was Diana was confident it had acquired the momentum she needed of it.

Finally, she released the rope and the missile, causing it to tumble away towards the stratosphere. She followed it as best she could, watching the missile stop its corkscrew ascent in the upper altitudes before it was able to right itself, with nose aimed towards the heavens. When it resumed its flight, it was heading not towards the earth but towards the stars, where she prayed it would cause no further mischief.

Arms aching, her palms bloody from where the lariat had cut into her skin from its heavy load, Diana could feel the prickling sensation of first degree burns across her flesh when she had flown into the path of the missile’s rocket to reach it. The wounds would heal soon enough, she thought as she reached for Harmonia’s talisman again, she had saved Bruce’s city and for the moment, she would take comfort in that in spite of her pains.

She tried not to think of Bruce, of whether or not he still lived. Such thoughts only weakened her and she remembered what he said, that even in the face of sacrifice, she should use what feelings they shared to help her go on, to help her fight. She would do that because it was right, because it was her destiny and because she owed him that.




*Who are you? What are you doing here?