Trinity

“What happened? Where’s Diana?” Clark asked Bruce the minute he set down on the floor of the launch room.

Bruce looked up at Clark briefly, taking note of the tear in his uniform before answering, his gaze dropping back to Colonel Trevor who was still lying on the floor,. “I told her to leave, to go after the next missile.”

“Alone?” Clark exclaimed, surprised that Bruce would do that, especially when he was getting a fair idea about the man’s feelings for the Amazon. “You sent her off alone?”

“Diana’s a warrior Superman,” Bruce said firmly, the barest hint of anger in his voice as the fingers of his gauntlet pressed against Trevor’s neck, searching for a pulse. “She can handle herself and this was always her quest. Besides, Eris was just trying to manipulate her by attacking me and the others. She was stalling Diana and Diana’s in no position to play that game. There are still two other missiles.”

Clark was convinced that there was more to it than that. The way Bruce avoided his gaze told the man of steel much about Bruce’s feelings towards Diana so he let the matter drop, turning his attention to the situation at hand.

Now that Eris had been dispatched, his super hearing detected the sounds of paramedics on approach. No doubt the surveillance cameras in the walls had given them the all clear to proceed. He could hear their boots pounding across the steel floor as they closed in on the two heroes and the fallen soldiers around them. Although their color was better, Trevor’s men remained dangerously still. For that matter, the exposed parts of Bruce’s face beneath the cowl showed signs of frost burns. The incendiary devices Bruce had used had brought up the temperature in the room but, it was not nearly enough by Clark’s estimation.

“They’ve all got hypothermia,” Bruce replied as he started to give Trevor CPR.

“It the room temperature,” Clark declared, “its not warm enough. I’ll bring it up,” he stated and took a step back before drawing in his breath. Exhaling, he blew the cold air out of the room, replacing it with the heat of his breath. He would have used his heat vision but that was too much for such an enclosed space. Within minutes, the battle between hot and cold air resulted in beads of water running down walls and instruments as condensation took place.

“Thanks,” Bruce said gratefully, unhappy about the state of the Colonel because he couldn’t detect a heart beat. He stood up abruptly to storm over to the door emptying into the corridor beyond. “Hurry up!” He called out to the approaching medics. “These men need help!” He barked.

Meanwhile, Clark was blowing more hot air at the soldiers themselves, quick drying their clothes and giving them a more direct application of heat. Hearing Bruce’s concern for Trevor however, prompted Clark to pause and scan the colonel with his enhanced vision and it appear Bruce’s efforts at CPR had borne fruit. He could see and hear the very slight beating of the man’s heart. It was barely discernible but nevertheless present. “Batman, he’s still alive. I can hear his heart beating. Its faint but it there.”

As he said that, the paramedics rolled into the room and Bruce withdrew, letting the healers swarm around him and Clark as they attended to the soldiers. The urgency of their comrades’ condition negated any need for pointless questions at the two heroes which was just as well because Bruce was in no mood to be interrogated.

“What happened with Ixion?” Bruce asked Clark now that they had a moment to breathe (though not for long), “is Metropolis okay?” By that Bruce actually meant Lois but was certain that Clark would understand his meaning by now.

“Yeah,” Clark nodded, “he tore up the city pretty bad but I took care of him.”

“You look like hell,” It wasn’t even a question as Bruce regarded the torn fabric of his uniform. It took quite a bit to hurt a Kryptonian, Bruce knew from experience, so any damage would have been severe.

“I’ll live...” Clark shrugged, once again reading through the lines of Bruce’s manner to know that he was concerned.

Suddenly, klaxons began screaming across the facility and everyone jumped up in response.

“What is that?” Clark blurted out, the sound echoed throughout the building and generated all kinds of panic throughout its occupants. He could hear voices shouting out, chatter growing so chaotic it was hard to discern anything useful.

“Its the early warning system,” Bruce said grimly. “For a nuclear weapon launch.”

*******

No more than five minutes later, Clark and Bruce found themselves inside the main operations room of the facility, watching a digital screen displaying an image of the continental North America, Europe and the Atlantic that separated both. By the time they had arrived, the unbroken digital line that had previously depicted the image of an inbound missile crossing over the North Sea towards the United States had suddenly veered off and heading off the map entirely.

“It was initially headed for Gotham City,” a Captain Michaelis explained, his expression one of relief, even more so because Superman was here, though he wasn’t certain what to make of the Batman whose existed until now, been something of an urban legend.

“Gotham?” Clark exclaimed and shot a look at Bruce who said nothing.

Bruce didn’t say anything although his jaw clenched in reaction to the fact that his precious city and those meant everything to him might have come close to annihilation.
“And then all of a sudden,” Michaelis continued, “it seemed to lose all navigational control and was heading on a new course, towards the upper atmosphere. At the speed its going, its going to end up space and in about fifteen minutes.”

“Diana,” Bruce looked at Clark. “Diana stopped it.”

There was no other explanation. Clark was grateful to the lives she had saved, “but that was but the second of three missiles, somewhere out there was a third.”

And then as if fate were listening to the conversation, the air was filled with the shrill sound of klaxons screaming some other calamity about to descend upon them. The tempo was different with pauses in between. Something was happening but it was different kind of something Clark decided as he saw the urgent expression on Michaelis and then Bruce.

"What is it?" He asked them, almost shouting to be heard.

"Its our early warning system," Michaelis said grimly. "There's been another launch somewhere else."

****

XIAO QAIDAM
QINGHAI PROVINCE.

She was too late.

By the time she had reached the facility, she could see the panicked horror on the faces of the men and women working at the complex, chattering to each other in their native tongue fully cognizant of what they'd unleashed upon themselves and the rest of the word. The missile like the last two had been launched and the one who had launched it had lay slumped over the console where he had done the deed, his back riddled with bullets. However, it appeared he had not gone into twilight easily. In the hall beyond the launch room, the floor was strewn with bodies of soldiers who had tried to prevent him from launching his nation's missiles at another without provocation.

She remained long enough for them to recognize her as an enemy, the standard on her amour, bore the marks of their global rivals and it did not take long enough for them to train their guns at her. She did not understand their language but they had begun to interpret her presence at being the cause of the dead man's actions. While their words eluded her, their intent did not and Diana was not wasting time when yet another one of these devastating weapons was on its way to giving Ares his victory.

Deflecting their bullets, Diana launched herself through the ceiling above her, shattering walls and raining debris and mortar on the people below her. Moving the numerous floors, she tore through the building like a battering ram, demolishing anything that stood between her and the sky. She would stop this last missile even though her flesh still stung from the burns of the last one. It was her destiny to end this conflagration before it escalated into flame that consumed the entire world.
Smashing through the last wall, Diana soared into sky like a phoenix out of the ashes. As she gazed at the skyline above her, she could see the plume of white smoke in the wake of the missile’s launch. The weapon of destruction was itself soaring into the sky with a roar of triumph, celebrating the carnage it would soon cause as the last piece of Ares ultimate plan. Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the thing, determined that it would not succeed and launched herself towards it.

The air rushed past as she flew forward, leaving the Chinese base further and further beneath her feet, lost somewhere in the harsh, rocky terrain beneath her. It was a landscape for a hardy people and if she survived these, she wished to learn more about the older cultures of the Patriarch’s World. Bracing herself for the pain and the effort she would need to stop the missile, Diana looked down briefly to reach for her lariat.

It was for only an instant that she took her eyes off the missile in front of her but it was enough.

She looked ahead only to see something strike her with more power than she had even experienced before. It felled from the sky like a bird struck by an arrow. Blinded by pain and disorientated, Diana was unable to stop herself from being hurled to the ground like a witless child. She fell backward, the wind rushing past her until she slammed through the roof of the building she had exited a moment ago, creating a new trail of destruction as she tore through it again.

Great Gaea, she thought as she struggled to get up, what had struck her?

Looking up, she could see faces staring at her through the newly created hole through the buildings, peering down at her with a mixture of confusion, fear and anger. They were reeling from shock but Diana could see their outrage at this violation of their domain. There was blood coming from her nose, a river of red running down her lips, creating droplets on her exposed skin. Her palms bleeding as she forced herself off the ground, Diana stood up shakily, feeling the room spin. She shook her head, trying to clear her head. It was not easy to do. She knew she was injured more severely than she'd ever been in her life and she knew that her battle was far from over.

She could hear the footsteps of soldiers closing in on her, no doubt wanting answers to why she was destroying their facility and what part was she playing in the launch of the missiles. She could not deal with them now and launched herself into the air once again. This time they did not let her leave as easily and as she moved through the floors, heard the explosion of gunfire around her. One bullet grazed her thigh and caused her to cry out in pain but Diana ignored and kept going, determined to reach the sky once more, determine to keep the missile from reaching its destination.

However, someone was waiting for her as she emerged from the roof of the building.

Nearly fifteen feet tall, his frame muscular and formidable, he stared at her with eyes glowing like the flames of burning city. He remained motionless in the air, his dark robes swirling about him, resembling not cloth but the clouds of black created by the cruel breath of a village sacked. His amour was dark, engraved with the images of the bloodiest of battles. She did not recognize all of them but she knew that they were conflicts that had torn the world apart from dawn of time. His skin was coal black, not flesh at all but the abyss of complete annihilation. He was anti-life, the personification of humanity's worse impulses.

He stared at her and she could not see his face for the face of war was terrible to behold and he was its master.

The God of War.

"Greetings child of Hippolyta," he spoke and his voice felt the rumble of thunder. "I decided it was time we met.”

******

“Where did the launch originate?” Bruce demanded when they’d reached control center once again.

The place was a hive of urgency activity with screens alive with ominous numbers and digital maps displayed on consoles, most flashing with angry red colors indicating the impending catastrophe. Bruce caught sight of a missile’s trajectory across the Asian continent, the line of trajectory showing an impact zone somewhere in Russia. People were chattering on the phone, hurrying about trying to collect data, searching for some way to deal with the situation or rather survive it.

"China!" One of the technicians piped up, too consumed in the urgency of the situation to question why he was answering a man in a cowl while Superman stood next to him with Captain Michaelis.
"Be more specific Airman!" Michaelis barked suspecting that if this was to be stopped then the duo he was with would be the one to do it.

"Xiao Qaidam," the young man returned promptly, "in the Qinghai province."

"That tracks," Michaelis looked up at Clark and Bruce. "They have a weapons storage and a large military complex there. Our intelligence indicated that it was a possible ICBM silo."

"Where's it going to hit?" Clark asked, already guessing that target was Russia. It appeared Ares was playing a game of round robin with nuclear weapons. The US missile had been bound for China, the Russian bound for US and now the Chinese would be firing on Russia. The scope of destruction would have been unimaginable he thought.

"St. Petersburg," the technician replied.

Clark could not even fathom how many millions of people who would die when that missile reached its destination. St Petersburg was a population of five million people and those who did not perish in the initial blast would instead suffer a slow death by radiation poisoning in the aftermath. To say nothing of the retaliatory strikes that would be launched by Russia and another city would be reduced to cinders and more death would follow. No, he couldn't let that happen.

"I have to go now," Clark said retreating from the two men. "I've got to get there first."

"Can you stop it Superman?" Michaelis asked, too horrified by what might be to be overcome by skepticism.

"I do everything I can to make sure," Clark retorted, daring not to promise him anything more.

"I'm going with you," Bruce stated with a firmness that made Clark pause.

"Batman," he said feeling odd using the codename at this moment, "I need to get there fast, your suit may not be able to withstand the velocity I'll be travelling." He warned.

"I'll take that risk," Bruce declared, not about to be talked out of anything. "If it launched then something stopped Diana, she'll need help."

"I'm not willing to let you risk your life," Clark said resolutely.

Bruce sucked in his breath, not wanting to play this card but more than willing to. "You owe me."

Clark shot him a look, somewhat shocked that Bruce would compel him that way. If it was anyone else, Clark might not have been so surprised. However, it was Bruce who was doing the asking. Bruce who kept his inner self himself hidden in a fortress so impregnable that one would be forgiven for believing he had no heart at all. Except Clark knew better. He'd seen that heart when Chloe was alive and now that Diana had entered their lives, he was seeing glimmers of it again.

"Alright," he agreed, wondering if there was ever a doubt that he wouldn't.

Although Clark couldn't see through the cowl, he could tell that Bruce was grateful and nodded silently, understanding from where the plea had come. Bruce rarely allowed anyone to see his vulnerabilities that that he was willing to do so spoke to a lot of his feelings regarding the Princess who was out there right now, fighting god knows what. Because like Bruce, Clark knew that noting less than death would have kept Diana from stopping the missile flying towards Russia.

Oblivious to the emotional currents swirling between the two men, Captain Michaelis spoke breaking through the unspoken conversation between the two men. "Superman, if you can do this, you don't have much time."

"Let's move," Bruce declared, bracing himself for his journey with Clark.

“Wish us luck,” Clark said finally to the army captain before he wrapped an arm around Bruce and launched them both off the ground, racing to stop Armageddon.

*******

Paradise could be found in the most unlikely places.

For the doe and her fawn strolling across the plateau on the edge of the remote Qinghai steppes which if travelled along would join with its Tibetan cousin, the foot high grass swaying to the breeze was as near to it as they could imagine. The rains had made the landscape green and for a time at least, the eating was good. Pausing as her yearling bent down to chomp on the verdant grass, the doe lifted her graceful neck high, her keen senses taking in the surroundings, keeping a vigil against the other denizens of the steppes who might do her young harm.

The sun was high in the sky and the distant rumbling was another of nature's mysteries for mother and child. Noticed for caution only and then ignored for the sky was known to make noises and the doe was accustomed to these by now. The fawn continued to eat, uneven but straight teeth, chomping away at the grass, storing reserves that would be needed later. The doe, satisfied that was all safe, bent her slender neck and prepared to join her child....

Until something caught her attention and her neck stood ramrod straight. Eyes darting about, she sniffed the air experimentally and waited, trying to decide if they should flee. A moment later, the shift caused her young to pause as well and both mother and child tensed, trying to determine from the danger was coming. She could smell it, could hear it and feel its swoosh in the air but she could yet to see it.

When it hit a few meters away from her and her progeny, the doe nudged the fawn with her blunt nose, signal to do what the Tibetan antelopes did best; run. Sprinting away from the scene of the alien danger, they did not pause, moving across the gloriously uneaten grass, instinct telling them to run until they very far away.

Diana had hit the ground so hard that she'd tore deep furrows through the green grass, until her skin was raw from the coarse grit of soil, her ribs broken, her lips bleeding. Face bloody, she had only a second to recover before a shadow fell over her form and she knew she had to get up now. The cloak of the war god hiding the sun as he hovered her, watching her the way a child would watch the struggles of a fly whose wings he'd just torn off.

“Yield child,” his voice rumbled above her like the bursting of artillery. “You cannot win and I will kill you if you continue this foolishness. I do not wish to slay you child, you’ve fought well but this was a battle you were never going to win.”

She refused to let herself hear him, refused to acknowledge his words because to do so would be to admit that he could be right. No! She screamed the word in silent defiance. She was born with a destiny, to end the madness of Ares before he brought the world to utter ruin. She could not let that come to pass. For the sake of everyone who breathed, her sisters on Themiscyra, her mother, the friends she had made in the Patriarch’s World....Etta, Lois Lane and Kal.

And of course Bruce.

Gritting her teeth as gesture of steely resolve, Diana forced herself onto her feet, ignoring the pain she felt in every muscle, determined to stand her ground against the war god, even if it was to the death. Straightening up, she looked up at him, the son of Zeus, who personified the cruelest aspect of man’s aggression.

“I will never surrender the field, my Lord.” She hissed and launched herself up in the air, fists forward, using all the strength that Gaea had bestowed upon her before she was born. Diana was no fool, she would not pit herself against Ares. If she had learnt anything these last few minutes, she was no match for him and he knew it. His purpose in appearing before her was merely to prevent her from stopping the missile his minions had already dispatched. She flew at him, hoping that she’d trick him into believing she was about to attack, perhaps catching him off guard when she didn’t.

It was a vain hope.

The God of War did not need to strike her. Something akin to the flames of a blast furnace shot past his fingers and enveloped her, the searing pain so intense Diana could only scream. Her skin felt as if it were on fire but her endurance and vulnerability though not as powerful as Kal’s, kept her from being burned alive. Caught in mid air, she writhed in pain as he swatted her aside like she was an annoyance not the strongest of her race. Diana was hurled through the air like a flaming arrow, smashing into side of a terraced cliff, the impact, breaking the soil and rock loose and it tumbled to the steppe beneath.

Diana landed against grass, her body pelted by debris as it rained down upon her. The cool soil offering her some respite from the searing pain of the scalding. Tears running down her face, she knew that despite the need to simply stay put, to succumb to his assaults, she simply had to stand. Pushing herself onto her hands and knees when she mustered the strength to move, she looked up to see her tormentor staring down at her, his face hidden by his helmet while his eyes revealed his contempt.

“Do not do this Lord Ares,” Diana pleaded. “I beseech you to consider what it is you do. Your mastery over this world is great, you have proven to the Olympus that you are a son as great as his father. You do not have to let the Earth burn.”

“Do not speak to me as if you understand the ways of a god child,” he spoke reproachfully. “Man has always been mine. Prometheus may have created him out of clay but he was always my creature. Before Pandora unleashed her doom upon him, I was the reason man conquered, to claim his right as the master of all through force and strength., to better himself at any cost, even if that cost was blood. My mother, my sisters sought to blunt my power by creating your race, an equal to man, imbuing you with a desire for peace and unknowingly ensured that you would fail.”

“I will not fail,” she stood up again, a show of defiance that he would have to annihilate all traces of her before she would admit anything else. “And man is capable of more than this bloody path you have set him upon, even to his destruction.”

His laughter was like thunder rumbling, it made Diana stiffen with anger and impotence at his so obvious superiority. “You are priceless child? What do you know of man? Has your mortal lover tainted your reasoning so quickly?”

The mention of Bruce raised Diana’s hackles even more.

The war god snorted and added, “just like a woman.”

Fury surge through her, the adrenaline rushing through her like fire and Diana launched herself into the air again, taking advantage while he laughed at her, thinking her insignificant. She was not. She was a daughter of Gaea and she would not fail! She struck him so hard and fast that the ground rumbled from the sonic boom. He was off balanced but for a moment and Diana knew that when he regained it, she would be at a disadvantage again. Reaching the lariat forged by Ares’ own brother Hephaestus, she threw the lasso and circled the god of war in gold before jerking back with all the strength she had. He bellowed in outrage, a sound that was terrifying and served to remind of her own fear. Diana forced it away, ignoring the consequences of an assault on an Olympian, the first son of Zeus no less. Diana had greater concerns at present.

She had captured a war god. Now she had to decide what to do with him.

****

Just like when he was travelling with Lois, Clark had to be mindful of his passenger when he flew across the globe in a matter of minutes. Shielding his body against Bruce's own, Clark's invulnerable form kept the wind velocity from causing him friend any serious harm. Bruce's costume design to protect him from gunfire, also aided in the process allowing Clark to fly faster than he would with Lois. In a matter of minutes, he was approaching the coast of China, the landmass growing larger and larger with mile gained.

He didn't bother asking Bruce if the man was doing okay travelling at these speeds. For starters the wind would blunt either of their voices and Clark's repertoire didn't include super ventriloquism. While he could hear well enough, he wasn't sure that Bruce was capable of lip reading under such circumstances since the man wouldn't be able to hear him. Besides, he doubted Bruce would tell him if anything was wrong anyway. The last thing that Bruce considered a reason for caution was his well being. Clark had known him long enough to be certain of that.

However, Clark could not ignore the personal stake that Bruce had in this; Diana was the first evidence of his caring for anyone since Chloe, according to Lois. Clark wanted that for Bruce. As much as Bruce claimed to need no one in his life, Clark knew better. Chloe had given Bruce something; a place to retreat from his dark, solitary purpose and since her death, it seemed to Clark that Bruce had allowed it to swallow him whole. If he lost that connection with humanity, Clark feared for him, feared what he might become.

It was bad enough when Lex gave in to his darker impulses, the horror of what Bruce might be capable of was something not even a man of steel was prepared to face.

As they swept across the Chinese coast, their presence was noted by the sudden swells in the ocean as the wind spurred large waves to shatter against the shore. Their velocity had the affect of a low flying 747, a sonic boom was heard as he poured on more speed, shattering windows, causing people to look up in the air, wondering why there was thunder on a seemingly cloudless day. As he left the populated centres and moved into the interior of mainland China, trees beneath them bent like reed, grass fields shimmered, parting in places where the wind was too strong while animals fled for safer ground mistaking the signs for some impending calamity.

Using his enhanced vision, Clark scanned the distance before him, centering on the map coordinates that Michaelis had been good enough to provide before they'd left. There were times being able to see everything was a decided disadvantage, it allowed you to see too much, particularly when you were powerless to do anything about. The first thing he saw was the missile, speeding across central China, adjusting its trajectory to meet its destination in Russia. The second thing he saw was Diana and her state correspond with the expression on her face. She was bloody, badly scalded and she was still fighting. She was giving it everything she had and it wasn't enough.

Bruce caught the look and cursed his mortality for once because he wanted to know what was at the root of that troubled expression. At this moment than any other, Bruce envied Clark's abilities because his bones were aching and his skin freezing beneath layers of Kevlar from travelling at this speeds. He couldn't tell Clark though but the Kryptonian's determination to protect all life, even his, would cause him to slow down and Bruce knew they couldn't afford to waste a moment.

Like he was watching a movie in fast forward, Bruce saw the landscape beneath him blur and looked up to see two figures in the distance, in mid air. It took him a minute more to realise that it was Diana and.... the being she had caught in her lasso was clad in Grecian amour but his skin was black, reminding him of the filthy industrial smoke that spewed out of smoke stacks. His features were obscured and a flash of insight made Bruce think that the face of war was too terrible to behold and so it could not be discerned.

"DROP ME!" He ordered.

Clark who had started to slow down, stared back at him disbelief. "WHAT?"

"You heard me! Drop me! You have to keep going after the missile!" Bruce repeated, reading his words more than hearing at this velocity.

"Goddamn it Bruce, you know what that is! He'll kill her and then you!" Clark pointed out in exasperation.

"And that missile will kill millions!" Bruce reminded harshly. "Do it Clark. If we die, we die. Diana and I accept that but you need to save the people that thing will kill! You know what's at stake!"
Clark wanted to protest because everything in him told him this was wrong, that you didn't leave your friends to die but Bruce was right. Damn him, Bruce was always right. A missile launch would give Ares his war, where the dead would not be the inhabitants of one city but would spark the flame of global destruction not even a Superman could stop.

"HELL!" He cursed and adjusted his own flight, moving low enough to the ground to drop Bruce so that the Batman could do what he could for Diana.

The battle between Ares and Diana was taking close enough for the duo to see the new arrivals and though Clark was torn at the thought of leaving when he saw the battering Diana was taking at the hands of a being that had to be the war god, he dropped Bruce on the rough terrain.

“I’ll be back as soon as I ....” he started to say when Bruce cut him off.

“I know! Just go! Before he tries to stop you to!” Bruce snapped and saw Clark giving a last look before the man from Krypton disappeared into the sky in a streak of red and blue, an explosion of sound in his departure.

*****

The thunderclap distracted both Diana and Ares. The two combatants looked up and saw the blur of red and blue disappearing into the sky, vanishing in a blink of an eye.

Kal! Diana thought with elation, relief flooding through her bruised and battered body because if Kal was here it meant that he had succeeded in defeating Ixion and was able to reach the last of the missiles.

“NO!” Ares roared as he realized that the Amazons’ comrade could upset his plans irrevocably. His eyes turned red with fury. “I will destroy your allies as easily I destroy you!” He bellowed and yanked the lariat holding him forward, pulling Diana towards him helplessly. She clung to the gold chord, determined not to let go despite knowing the pain that awaited her once she reached Ares.

It was no misjudgment on her part. When his fist hit her, she felt a nose shatter, warmth running down her face, stinging the split lip and feeling her mouth with its metallic taste. Her thoughts were in disarray as if blasted apart by a scattergun however, she held fast to lariat, a singular thought overriding the pain and the disorientation; not to let go. As long as she held the war god in place, he could not pursue Kal and Kal could stop the weapon.

Her life was surely worth all those he would save.

Ares kept his grip on the lariat even after he’d struck his blow, using the slack to swing the Amazon champion against the hard ground. Like a whip, he lashed the earth, using every method he could to dislodge her grip so he may pursue the last son of a dead world, flying swiftly towards the weapon that would set his glorious plan in motion.

“Let go child and this will end,” he tried to reason with the girl, who was nothing more than a big ugly wound of pain at this point. He could send her agony, could feel her strength waning, her ability to endure eroded under his assault. A part of the war god admired her fold her resilience for despite all of it, she would not yield. These Amazons were made of stern stuff.

“NO!” She shouted through cracked lips, her voice a groan of defiance. “I will not allow you to destroy this world, not while there is life left in my body!”

“It is a life granted by the GOD!” He roared in frustration and slammed her against the ground, a cloud of dust created by her impact. “You have no life without us! Olympus made you and I shall unmake you!”

“It matters not that I die!” She spat back, the lariat coiled around her wrist and palm as she forced herself to her feet again. “My purpose was to bring an end to your madness and it is a sacrifice I am willing to pay!”

Ares sought a different tact since the girl was defiant. He considered a moment her actions in the Patriarch’s World as these Amazon harpies called it and then thought of a way to penetrate her resolve.

“What if I allowed you and your sisters to live, I shall protect your island. Themiscyra holds no interest for me. You and mother can rule as you have always done. Think of it child, you do not need to die. Your strength and courage is great, a shame to squander on a meaningless death. Yield and you can live an immortal life, spared from the conflagration that must be.” He paused a moment and with a smile she could not see added, “I will even allow you to bring your lover to Themiscyra, your Bruce. You may live in paradise with him, perhaps even have children of your own. Think of it child.”

Damn him, she thought to herself, damn him for bring Bruce’s name forward because for a moment she did think of it She saw the purity of the God’s design then the created man and woman, how abiding their love could be. She thought of Kal by the side of his Lois, the woman with whom he could not do without. He’d battled the prisoner of the wheel to save her and Diana knew she saw the same care in Bruce’s eyes. He loved her, she knew it. He had not said the words but she saw it in his face and her own heart was very much his. If she yielded to Ares, she could have a life with him. She could salve the wounds in his tortured soul and bring fulfillment to her own.

“Think of it Princess…” Ares cajoled her like Zeus did when he gave Pandora the box.

Princess, Bruce called her that. And thinking of when Bruce, Diana remember what he’d told the last time she’d seen him, that love was about sacrifice and sometimes even brief was worth a lifetime if sacrificed in a cause that was just.

“No,” Diana shook her head, tears running down her face. “As much as I want that my lord, I cannot. Real love is about sacrifice and I cannot sacrifice the entire world for myself, my sisters nor Bruce. Not if I honor all that they are.”

“Pity,” Ares shook his head. “Then you will die with the rest of them.”

*****

Leaving Bruce and flying after the missile was one of the hardest decisions that Clark Kent ever had to make.

It wasn’t just about leaving his best friend to deal with what was probably an ancient Greek god but also leaving Diana to fend for fend for herself when he saw just about brutalized she’d been at the hands of that deity. However, if Jor-El’s teachings had taught him anything, it was that sometimes there had to be sacrifices for the greater good. The thing was, Clark had never been able to make that distinction; not then and not now.

He’d been unable to sacrifice Lois to Ixion just as he’d put off training with Jor-El until Chloe Sullivan had died. Yet he knew neither Bruce nor Diana would look favorably upon his choice if he had fought the war god with them. No, he had a role to play in this battle and as he sped across the landscape, his enhanced vision searching for the missile that had crossed into Russian space, he knew what part that was.

Beneath him, the empty, unpopulated landscape began to pick up with more and more traces of civilizations. Large stretches of empty space were becoming littered with settlements, coalescing into small villages, then small towns and big ones. He knew it wouldn’t be long before cities came into view and he would be out of time.

Flying faster than he’d ever travelled before, Clark was moving at speeds no human could endure, Kevlar or not. The wind around him had been whittled down from a continuous thunderous roar to a loud drone that was ringing in his eyes, blocking out the other voices and sounds that he picked up as normal background chatter he was able to filter out. The wake of his course created dust clouds and gale force winds. Debris was flying into the air, litter, dust, leaves, anything that was susceptible to the wind.
Finally, the missile came into view as it entered the city limits of Moscow.

Clark imagined that beneath him and the missile, the people of that city were in chaos and he might need to return here after he’d dispatched the missile to ensure that panic didn’t cause more damage than he already did. He wondered what safety measures were in place for the city and then realized that all the plans in the world couldn’t account for good old human panic.

Clark poured on more speed, shattering windows with his velocity as he closed the distance between himself and the back of the missile. He approached it from the rear, his Kryptonian skin keeping him from becoming incinerated as he caught a face full of intense heat blasting out of the missile’s engines. Grabbing onto the metal, his fingers dug deep as he forcibly altered the trajectory of the nuclear projectile and aimed it away from the city and towards the sky.

The missile wrestled against his control and for a few seconds, there was a struggle between man and machine as guidance system tried to compensate for the interference. In the end, the determination and strength of the Kryptonian won out and the missile submitted to the new direction and began speeding out of the atmosphere.

Clark wasn’t about to discharge his duty that quickly however and he continued to guide the nuclear weapon out of the stratosphere, leaving the cool comfort of the blue sky as they ascended higher and higher, leaving the world beneath them. The missile was no longer protesting its new trajectory and Clark had no difficulty guiding it put of the planet’s orbit.

They passed the international space station and left the moon behind them. With Sol beckoning in the distance, a yellow orb against the velvet darkness, Clark adjusted the missile’s path once more, like he was threading a needle and finally let go. He watched as it continued on its path, far away from its original destination, heading for oblivion in the new, returning to the sun like a child to the cradle.

Only when it had disappeared from his immediate sight, did Clark finally turn around and headed back to the blue world that was his home, to the friends he prayed were still alive.

*****

Alive yes but barely.

That was Bruce Wayne aka Batman’s assertion when he finally closed the distance between himself and the battle waged by Diana against the war god, making that journey on foot. It wasn’t easy to find them. The war god’s rages were like thunder claps and each strike on Diana shook the ground beneath him, giving Bruce an easy path to follow. When he finally reached the last ridge and saw Diana, even his normally dispassionate façade was shaken at the sight of her.

Jesus Christ, she was almost dead.

He could see the injuries across her body, the flesh that was nearly rubbed raw, the blood and discoloration that indicate the damage she had taken. Diana was still fighting, determined to keep the war god from pursuing Clark. Against this enemy, Diana’s formidable powers were nothing, not when Bruce saw her being smashed against the ground like a rag doll as Ares tried to get free. He wondered if there was anything he could do to help. He was just human with a bag of tricks to someone like Ares.

What could he do?

It didn’t matter, Bruce told himself a second later as he prepared to launch himself into the fray, Diana needed him and that was all that was important.

Bruce approached the two, feeling like the gnat that was getting in between two charging rhinos, wondering what he could do to help when Diana was so overwhelmed. He knew the best that he could manage was to be a distraction, a minor one at that but it might be enough for Diana to gain some respite, perhaps even catch her breath to go on the offensive.

Reaching for his batarangs, he took up position behind a scab of rock and threw the sharp, bat shaped spurs at the war god, one after the other, playing the role of the gnat.

Ares felt the sharp points of metal strike him almost immediately and turned in the direction of whence they came. One of the weapons dug into his skin though it did little to hurt him. The war god pulled the tiny spurts and grasped it in his large fingers like he was holding a needle and started to laugh. “Oh mortal you are truly priceless. This is your plan to harm me?”

Bruce! Diana turned to the space where Ares was taunting and saw the leather clad figure with the dark cowl and cape. Her heart swelled a moment at seeing him he had come but that instant was done when Ares sent a blast of fire at the rock behind which Bruce sought refuge, obliterating it an a cloud of dust and debris.

“BRUCE!” She almost cried out but the human was already on the move. She knew that he would not last long against Ares and Diana sought a new line of defense because her present course of delaying Ares had altered to involve keeping Bruce safe. She could not defeat Ares, that much clear but the god of war had to be stopped. He had to see what he plan would not unfold as he intended, he had to know the truth.

The truth…

Gaea be praised. That’s what Ares needed to see, the truth. Athena’s wisdom shone its light upon her as Diana realized that this was never about besting the war god in battle, this was about making him see the truth.

“ARES!” She demanded, dropping to her knees, pressing the lariat against the earth so that it and her would be renewed by Gaea’s strength. “ARES listen to me!”

Ares bristled at her command as he saw the human mite running for cover, tossing more of his little weapons at the god in an attempt to prolong his existence. He snapped his neck as he glared at her, his eyes burning with annoyance. “Do you think this battle allows you to call me anything other than your lord Princess? I will waste no more of my time on either of you!”

“You are my lord, Ares,” Diana continued to speak. “You are the greatest of Olympus’ warriors, the god of war. You have proven your courage to Zeus and all your enemies. Will you prove your courage to me?”

“Prove my courage?” Ares snorted, incensed. “How dare you? You are a weakling fashioned out of clay! I am god of Olympus, I need prove nothing to you!”

“Not even to show that you are unafraid of the truth?” Diana challenged.

Bruce listened to the exchange after Ares turned away from him, starting to see Diana’s plan and he commended her for it. Yes Princess, he thought to himself, let him understand what we all know. Let him see the reality of what he wants. All the god of war could see was the glorious battle and like all creatures of arrogance their perception was often short sighted until it was too late.

“I fear nothing!” Ares retaliated, wondering what mischief this Princess was attempting to parlay with him. “I already know the truth!”

“You know the truth as you see it my lord!” Diana answered, the lariat pressed into the ground, the energy of Gaea’s renewal restoring her enough to hold firm but little else. “There are many truths by which we see things but in reality only one which truly matters. Let your brother’s creation be the crucible by which you see the real truth.”

Ares hesitated, feeling a sense of unease at her request. There was something in what she asked that unsettled him but he was far too arrogant to admit it. “I already know that which you think you will have me know. Will you yield if I am right?”

Diana nodded with certainty that this was the course to take. Perhaps it had always been the only way to defeat Ares. It was a question she would put to Athena if she survived this day. “I will yield my lord. You have my word.”

“I will hold you to that promise child,” Ares retorted, convinced that this was another tactic to delay him. It would matter little. Even if this day did not end in the way he wished it, there were always minions willing to do his bidding.

That’s it Diana, Bruce thought as he listened in shadows, keeping out of Ares path to avoid giving Diana another thing to worry about. He’d done all he could distract Ares and that allowed Diana a moment to catch her breath and apparently that was all she needed. He could hear the hope in her voice at getting Ares to choose their final battleground.

“Then do your worst child,” Ares taunted, watching her hold the lariat in palms that were rubbed raw and bleeding, keeping the gold pressed into the ground to gain the strength of Gaea, given to her by Demeter his aunt, an Olympian older than he.

On her knees, holding the lariat to the god of war like one trying to tether a bird in flight, Diana took in a deep breath, feeling her chest ache at the action before she spoke. “Ares, son of Zeus, with the power of Gaea and the blessing of Olympus woven into this lariat, given to me by Hephaestus god of Forge and imbued with the wisdom of your sister, Athena, see the truth of what you would wreak today.”

At first, the god of war was still and there was a silence in all things around them. Like all life and sound had diminished and they were the last three people in the world. The wind died, the creatures great and small held their breath in anticipation and the god of war, standing on the cusp of his greatest victory began to see.

He saw his weapon reach its destination, watched the moment of silence almost as ominous as this one before a light so bright filled his senses as if his brother Apollo had him into the centre of the sun. The bright was only momentary and when it diminished the world around him was blown away like creation itself had expelled a held breath. Everything was destroyed, wall of fire not seen since the war with the Titans swept across the landscape. Stone, iron, wood, flesh all burned in one terrible instant and a column of smoke reached so high into the sky that the clouds parted in dismay.

There was no screaming.

Not one at all. The destruction had come upon them so swiftly that no one had time to scream. In a second, they were bodies wrapped in flames before disintegrating into ash. Nothing was left in their wake, just ashes of complete destruction, borne away by the hot, gasp of wind. In a second, there was nothing where millions had been, just this leveled ruin of a city. The survivors who had not perished in the initial blast were already dying. The poison was already seeping into their skins, slowly liquefying their bones. In the days to come, they would look upon those who had died first as the fortunate ones.

And this horror was repeated on every continent with each city falling like dominoes once the chain of events had been started. The explosions seemed like stars twinkling in the night, gone as soon as they had started yet leaving behind nothing but devastation in its wake. Ares saw this destruction and reveled in the potency of the hallucination. He could smell the smoke, the burning pyres of bone and flesh as his masterpiece was unfolded before him.

From his domain the Areopagus, Ares watched the flame he had breathed into existence burn as he imagined it would be. This was the truth the child wanted him to see? He almost laughed at her naïveté. As if seeing the destruction would cause him to change his course. What foolishness had been in her mind? In his victory, he would claim his place on Olympus, usurp Zeus and take the throne of heaven once and for all.

Except….

The scene began to change because once the flames had burnt itself out, there were nothing else. There were no survivors left to sing praises, no one to remember the world that been. The few lived were the walking dead, their thoughts devoid of hope, of spirit or faith. Even the Amazons beyond the veil were not spared the destruction and as their lives withered like fruit on the vine, Ares began to see the magnitude of what had been done.

The Olympians moved like shadows into the great ship bound for underworld because they knew that without the faith of man to believe in gods, that without the worship of the Amazons, their existence too, was finite. He stood on a mountain of bone, his Areopagus crumbling around him, joining the ashes of Gaea’s earth, whose passing not even the gods were able to bear witness because they too were gone.

And he was all alone.

There was no one left to see his greatness. The gods had abandoned the realm, gone to their end with the rest of the humanity. The world was ruin of dead, poisonous ash and the only thing that still lived was him. There were no voices, no prayers to the god of war to win their cause, just emptiness and silence. Even his children diminished for without man to feel dread or discord, what use were gods?

“NO!” He howled in rage. “This cannot be real! It is a ruse!”

Ares had dropped to his knees, his great body shaking in horror. “YOU HAVE TRICKED ME!”

“No my lord!” Diana responded, shaking her head. “This is the truth you did not want to see, that if you continue on this path! There will nothing left, not humanity, not Olympus not you! Stop this madness now! Stop it while there is still time!”

All his glorious plans and this was the result. No one left to see his greatness? What use was a masterpiece if no one could appreciate it? “All this time,” Ares groaned, burying his face in his hands, “all this time and this is what comes of my plans? It is…WRONG!”

“What else is the result of war my lord?” Diana asked, loosening her grip, sensing that she’d get no more fight from him. “You have seen a thousand battles and in the end, there is always ruin except now, mankind’s weapons can destroy everything. Your creation has become the master except his expression of it will destroy us all. War can no longer be the way, my lord. Even you must see that now.”

Begrudgingly, Ares conceded defeat as the lariat slackened around him and he stepped out it. Diana made no attempt to regain control of him. It was no longer needed. Ares had seen what she needed him to. Dropping to the ground, she allowed herself to feel the exhaustion sapping away at her strength.

“Aye child, I see. I will be there when man chooses to wage war against his brother but I will not longer take part in it.” The war god spoke staring at the broken form of the young woman.

“That’s it?” Bruce Wayne shouted. “You nearly bring the world to annihilation and that’s all you have to say for yourself?” Bruce had emerged when Ares had been deconstructed.

“I do not answer to you, son of Wayne.” Ares shot him a look, eyes still red but there seemed to be softness in them as well, the menace blunted by understanding and regret. “I am the god of war and as long as your kind chooses to fight, I will exist.”

“There is another path,” Diana spoke, eyes meeting Bruce’s, “it is path of love and understanding. They can be a great people my lord; they lack the light to show them the way. There are good people who will stand and show mankind that there is more than violence and pain, there is good in everyone.”

“Then help them find it child,” Ares declared, his voice regaining its earlier imperiousness as he glance at Bruce briefly before turning his eye to her again to issue one final warning. “Show them a better way, you and your comrades or else I will teach a lesson they will not forget.”

And with that, the god of war disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke.