The Superman & Wonder Woman Fan Archive

“What the—” Kal yanked me to my feet. The rest of my gown fell from me in a rush of ash. Kal pulled his cape from his shoulders and wrapped it around my sudden nakedness. He lifted my chin, made me look at him. Panic edged his gaze and that had my stomach cramping. “Diana?”

“Kal?”

The low threat in his father, Jor-El’s voice chilled me and I wrapped Kal’s cloak tight around my body. What in Athena’s name was going on? Why had my robes just…burned away…from my flesh?

Kal’s father continued in a rushed, tight whisper. Angry eyes flicked over me. “You disobeyed the Empress’s order. She’s not sklava.”

Kal shook his head. “I did everything asked of me—”

Jor-El’s eyes flared. “You fool. She’s still an aikaterine, now a queen and a mated one, too.”

Kal took a step back, his hand closing around my arm and pulling me with him. “Impossible. I did everything…”

His voice faded and everything around me, Kara’s opening speech, the growing murmurs of the crowd, all fell to silence.

Jor-El and Kal argued, his father’s face shining with fury.

Kara stood straight, her shoulders back, presumably oblivious to the heated fight raging behind her. Everything around me had turned into an unnatural and eerie haze. Only the solid thump of my heart echoed over-loud in my ears.

Jor-El said I was still a queen, which meant Kal was my mate.

I was a queen, with all the honor that came with it, a province, children… My heart contracted and I ran a trembling hand over my face, fingers chilled against suddenly hot cheeks. I would have children—

“A duel!”

The voice snapped through me. Donna. My sister’s demand rose loud above the unsettled mutterings of the watching crowd.

“Diana burned the sklava collar. She’s proven herself a queen. Kara must duel for the right to rule us.”

Kara snorted. “That is ridiculous. She’s my brother’s sklava…”

She turned her head and then her whole body to face me. Her eyes fixed on mine. I held her gaze. The softest sound escaped my lips. Kara gave a responding snarl and we both recognized the challenge. I pulled myself free of Kal’s grip and walked toward my rival.

“Diana!” Kal shouted after me but I ignored him.

My destiny had me well within its grasp and nothing mattered but staking my claim on the Sky Throne.

Kara’s blue eyes narrowed. Her hands balled into fists. “What did you do to my brother?” Her voice had a hard edge of anger…and maybe doubt?

That thought had a smile tugging at my mouth. Kara, who’d had everything handed to her, doubted that she had power over me. “Shouldn’t that be what didn’t he do to me?”

“Funny,” she muttered. “You won’t survive this, Diana.”

The smile on my mouth grew and I enjoyed the edge of unease that crept into her face. “I survived becoming a sklava. Who knows what I’m capable of?”

Heavy hands landed on my shoulders. Kal’s fingers curled into the thick fabric of the cloak that he had used to cover my body.

“We need to make this official, Diana. There are rituals, rules—”

“I cannot wait.” Kara’s voice reverberated with power. “Wayne, prepare the arena. Give her choice of armor and weapons. But first, give her fresh clothes.  Then we duel.”

Fire sparked in her eyes, making her look uncannily, for a few minutes, like Kal. “I’ll bury you and Kal together. A fitting reward for your betrayal.”

“Melodrama?” A smile lurked in Kal’s voice and my own mouth twitched. “Fate is favoring Diana. Or hadn’t you noticed?”

“We’ll see.” Kara straightened her shoulders. “Do you agree to the waiving of all rights and we take the fight over there?” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder to the dark line of the wood. “Only the victor walks away.”

My only response was, “Let fate decide.”

****

Wayne took over then, as Captain of the Guard (he may well be my Captain of the Guard, very soon, but I pushed that thought away), and he announced, “Half-hour from now, the duel shall begin – let it be a duel to death.”

Donna came up with fresh robes, my armor and my weapons. I dressed quickly behind Kal’s broad back. When I stepped out from behind Kal, Wayne stepped behind me, and attached Kal’s cape to the clasps at my neck, adjusting the fall of the cape down my back. As Kal was my mate, I had the right to wear his cape in pride. Just like he would wear my coat of arms upon his tunic on his right breast.

Wayne’s fingertips brushed briefly down my spine, lingering a moment too long. I turned to tell him how his new Empress did not appreciate his touch. Before I could say a word, Kal pulled me toward him, away from Wayne’s clever fingers. From Kal’s expression, he was very aware of what the late Empress’ Captain of the Guard had been attempting to do. Unperturbed, Wayne handed Kal his brunt torc, which he took with a hard glare.

Kal slid his hands over mine and lifted both to his mouth, pressing a kiss against my palm.

“Kal…” Kara’s low growl cut over me.

“Stay out of this, Kara, its too late now, I belong to her.” Heat burst through me at this words and I drew in a deep, steadying breath, inhaling his intoxicating scent. Damn, the man meant more to me than I ever thought he could.

I pressed back against Kal, as he held me to him, savoring the feeling of his hard body.

“Stop, Diana.” He rested his forehead against mine, his skin hot. His soft whisper brushed my skin. “Or your new subjects might get more than a flash of your backside.”

I licked my lips. “Is that a promise?”

His mouth covered mine in a fierce kiss that robbed me of all thought. I clung to him, not caring who saw us, actually wanting people to witness how much Kal was mine. This man, in such a short time, had come to mean so much to me…

I lifted my face for his kiss, and he did not fail me now, letting his lips work upon mine, giving me strength with his body, creating a need that only he could assuage.

Kal’s fingers dug into my shoulders, his tongue played with mine and the warmth rushed under my skin.

Fire, desire and his own heady taste swept through me. I felt Kal’s smile.

But then, he pulled back, his hand stroking over the wild tangle of my hair. “Come back to me.”

His words pierced my heart. I wanted to promise and the words burned on the tip of my tongue. But we both knew it would be a promise that I couldn’t keep. Fate had favored me, but it was a fickle friend. “If that’s what’s decided.”

“Trust in yourself,” he murmured before stepping back.

My fingers curled into balls and I suddenly didn’t know what to do with my hands. It was too late to say those extra words, tell him of the sudden, unexpected way that I loved him. I took a steadying breath and lifted my chin, I looked into those blue eyes, that held so much promise, that had been warm even when I had been his to do with as he wished. And there was my incentive to fight—my need and my love for Kal.

I let my eyes tell him of the emotions that I could not voice just now. Now, I needed to focus on the fight at hand. To be able to strategize and to plan and I had just minutes in which to do it.

I looked towards Donna and beckoned her close. I needed to talk to her, to tell her what I had seen. So that she protected my back, while I faced Kara.

As soon as I had Donna nearby, I described what I had seen with my inner vision – as I rapidly described the scene, Donna’s face turned white. And I knew that she was as affected as I had been. There was only one way to spring the trap. And I told Donna what to do.

At last, I embraced my sister, giving her a tight hug. I turned then, and kneeling towards the rising sun, turned my face to the sky and prayed to Nike, goddess of Victory.

“Open my eyes, O Nike, to behold true beauty, divine beauty, pure and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and the vanities of human life.

So beholding beauty with the eyes of the mind I shall be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauties but realities, and nourishing true courage may become thy friend and attain to immortality and victory. Veritate et virtute!”
I felt the softest breeze touch me and knew the goddess had heard my prayers. The rest lay in my skill and knowledge.

****

“Ready, Diana?”

Kara stood in front of me, furious, yet she met my glare.

I flashed a smile and leapt from the dais. Hitting the soft, cold grass in a half-crouch, I sprang forward and bolted for the tree line for the arena. Kara’s snarling curse whipped around me on the biting winds, followed by a ragged burst of cheering from the assembled crowd.

I seemed to have an inner strength flowing into my quick strides. Fate had put me in position to become ruling Empress—as insane as that seemed—and I didn’t intend to ignore that opportunity. We would hunt and we would fight in the forest. The first to submit to the power of the other forfeited the right to rule and became the prisoner of the other queen, to do with as she wished.

I didn’t dwell on what that would mean for me—and for Kal.

The sloping grassland curved into the dark edge of trees, a large, ancient oak casting the first shadows over the immaculate lawns.

Dried leaves littered the forest floor, my boots crunching over twigs and fallen acorns. My plan was simple. I had to take Kara by surprise. Not much of a plan, but it was all I had.

“Diana!”

Kara’s voice echoed through the shadowed darkness of the forest. “My brother tied himself to a coward.”

A quick smile pulled at my mouth. Was she having trouble spotting me? Why else would she want to draw me into revealing my position? I edged around low, spiky bushes, hissing as the sharp, leafless branches dug into my bare thighs. In the heavy shadow of the forest, the heat of the morning sun seemed a distant memory. I’d grown used to the gloom but not the icy cold that had my fingers numb.

Blowing on my fingers, I worked warmth back into my hands. Trees grew thick and heavy all around me, twigs interlocking and forming a heavy canopy of bare branches. Sunlight gilded their tops.

“Diana…”

Did she think I was an idiot? That her brother could fall so far in choosing a mate? I scrambled up the gnarled base of a beech and grabbed at the lowest branch. It’d been a few years since I’d climbed a tree, and it seemed I’d been a few feet shorter and a lot more agile as I tried to clamber to the next branch. I cursed at the twigs sticking into my stomach and pulled myself higher. Finding a thick branch, I dropped my legs over and settled back against the cold trunk.

The almost-silence of the forest washed over me. I listened to my even breaths, willing my heart to slow and blend into the life-force of the forest. Kara would find me. I just needed the brief moment of surprise that—maybe, if I was lucky—could catch her off guard.

I rubbed my hands together and willed some heat to travel through my body to the end of my fingers. I blew out a slow breath, steaming the air. I couldn’t risk thoughts of Kal—not if I wanted my body to disappear into the hibernating life of the forest.

Twigs cracked, breaking the silence.

I eased my way to the lower branch, staring into the thick shadow of the forest floor. With my pulse controlled, I listened intently and picked out Kara’s pounding heart somewhere off to my left.

She’d made no attempt to mask her body or the noise she made as she kicked through deep leaf litter. She was relying on her superior strength, had to be. She still wore the golden coronet of the Empress. Uncrowned, though she was, that gave her additional power. I could sense the potency of that power. Athena, help me, she was strong.

The branch took my weight. I focused. When Kara stomped beneath the branch, when I fixed on the fair curls pinned with gold and diamonds and the Empress’s glittering crown, I would jump. My heart thudded in a slow rhythm as concentration held me.

Closer…but her fast march over the thick litter slowed. Kara stopped and her chin lifted. She pulled in a deep breath. She’d picked up the thin thread of my scent, probably felt it thicken around the tree.

Kara moved forward. Her heart thudded, I sensed her excitement rising. I clamped my will down, holding still, waiting, waiting…

Ornate curls, pins, nail-sized diamonds. The ancient crown of the ruling Empress.

I leapt. In a frozen instant, I caught the image of her upturned face, her brow starting to furrow and then a dawning realization, just before I smashed into Kara and dropped her to the forest floor. I gripped her waist with my thighs and grabbed her upper arms, pinning her to the ground. I almost growled with joy at capturing my rival. Athena’s blessings coursed through my veins, giving strength to every muscle. I leaned over her. “You were looking for me?”

Kara snarled, struggling. “An ambush? The coward’s way.”

I smirked at her and her eyes narrowed. Her hips twisted under me, her hands trying to get a grip on my robe, my arms. Ah Athena, Kara was strong.

I wanted to keep the strain of holding her from my voice and probably failed. “Fate chooses who we are.”

“My brother’s weakness put you here!”

With a heave, she tried to roll me. But I was ahead of her and I scrambled free. Before she could leap up, I fell on top of her again, pressing her face into the damp piles of leaves and twigs.

Fighting to pull her flailing arms behind her back, I sat low on her spine.

She bucked, her feet kicking out, her screams half choked as leaf mulch sucked into her mouth. But I stayed steady, held her to the ground thick with muck. Her body jerked, strained, but I held fast. “I will not submit to you! Kill me and have done with it.”

I smiled, a sharp and satisfied smile. I had her now. “I’m not going to kill you, Kara. You’ll live out your life with your chosen mate.”

That froze her and then a sneer crept across her half-buried face. “You’re weak. I would not leave a rival living.”

I tugged at her arm, lifting it, and she cried out. She fought me, but it was a token effort. Only her pride had her fighting, she would soon admit defeat.

“Kill me.”

Her tone begged me, but Kara had tried to deny me Kal, deny me my future. I could show her no such mercy.

“No.”

I twisted her arms and using the golden girdle gifted to me by our goddesses, tied them behind her. Standing up, I pulled her to her feet, and commanded her to speak the words that proclaimed her defeat.

“Ave Diana Imperatrix, cor meum tibi offero”(Hail, Diana, Empress, My heart I offer to you)

With the surrender ceremony complete, I pulled the crown free of her hair.

I brushed the mud and leaves from my robes. I placed the crown on the wild tangle of my own hair, my own spirit exulting at the power from the crown.

 “Kara, kneel before your ruling Empress.”

She stilled and then slowly she knelt, her head bowed. “Your Grace,”she murmured.

I held back my smile, remembering Kal’s words. I wouldn’t gloat over her.

“Your province is the Northern Sector of the Empire, Kandor.”

Kara’s head snapped up. She stared at me. “My birth place? It’s been uninhabited by Kryptonians for centuries.”

“There are a few still living there.” I gave her a sharp smile. “Build up the economy, get it thriving again.” The smile faded. “It’s a reminder for you, Kara. Fate rules us. You can’t cheat or deny it.”

She stared at the floor. “Yes, Your Grace.”

I let out a slow breath and turned from her. “I’ll send Vril Dox in to get you.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

I strode back through the forest, keeping my back straight, my chin up. Insane as it was, suddenly I was the ruling Empress.

I ran a trembling hand over my tangled hair, tracing the wrought gold of the crown, and willed my breathing slow and even. My heart thudded as the aftershock of vanquishing Kara hit my body.

I grabbed at a nearby sturdy tree, using it to support my unsteady legs. Glancing back, I found only the heavy shadow of trees spiked now by the gradually rising sun’s sharp beams. Kara hadn’t witnessed my moment of weakness. I closed my eyes and focused on all my strength to sustain me.

I ruled now.

A smile curved my mouth. Really, that sounded crazy. I was the first daughter of a queen, true, a minor queen and yet I had hunted the Empress’s son, defeated his sister and ruled in her stead.

The goddesses had favored me. I would never forget that.

I pushed myself away from the cold bark of the tree. The trunks thinned and the gleam of the morning sun cut through to the forest floor. My boots crunched through the dry leaves, taking me out of the wood.

I stopped…Donna was waiting for me, she ran towards me, and whirled me around a in a tight hug.

Then, suddenly, before I knew what was happening, I felt her release her grip. “Sweet Athena, Diana, I forgot, you’re the Empress, now.” And my little sister made as if to kneel before me, when she and I were both stopped short by a voice we knew very well.

“Hola, daughters. Stop, Donna, you will not kneel before I do. As her mother, I have the right to be the first to kneel to the new Empress as her most loyal subject.”

I looked into my mother’s face – so beloved, so warm, so loving - and knew that I could not tell her what I had seen in my inner vision.

Behind my mother, stood the Themysciran host – our army…the sun washed warm over my cold limbs, a light breeze rippling my tunic to my body.

My mother stepped closer to me, and grasped my right hand. She began to kneel, bending her right knee first to me. As she brought her lips to my hand, there was a blur of movement and a fast-moving object hurled itself at my mother and me.

I was fast, moving quickly to pull my mother to her feet and out of the path of the hurtling object. Donna was faster. She intercepted the object in its path, and using its own momentum against it, hurled it into the midst of the Themysciran host.

Stunned, my mother looked at me and then at Donna, and then moved her gaze to take in the scene now unfolding in front of her.

Phillipus, able General, that she was, had maneuvered the corps, such that the interloper was caught within the strong arms of Jona and Hrana. With Phillipus leading the way, they marched their captive up to the three of us as we stood outside the forest from which I had emerged.

My mother gasped – she recognized the insignia on the left corner of the armored breastplate in front of her – it was her own royal coat of arms – the Queen of Themyscira.

My mother is a formidable woman, but not as formidable as when she is in a fury. Now, the Queen of the Amazons walked up to the captive and pulled the visor of the helmet up, and looked in to the face of Alkyone, her personal bodyguard. Chosen by Hippolyta herself, one of four privileged ones to serve the Queen, the bodyguards had sworn an oath to protect Queen Hippolyta against any harm.

“What do you mean by this, Alkyone?” demanded my mother. “Your majesty, you cannot allow that imposter – your daughter, Diana – to be Empress. You will lose your sovereignty and independence. As your personal guard, we cannot allow this harm to you,” was Alkyone’s surly reply. Then she continued, “I’ve been cooperating with the Kryptonian Senate to snare your daughter, to ensure that she lost her chance to be ruling aikaterine and was turned into sklava. And it would have all worked out fine, if only Prince Kal had not been so charmed by your daughter and kissed her first on the dinner hosted for the Cosmic Science Delegation. She was not yet a full aikaterine but that incident just marked Prince Kal as her mate. The only way out was for Princess Diana to willingly submit to Prince Kal tonight on the Night of the Hunter’s Moon, when she would become his sklava and your reign would be safe from harm.”

Donna and I gasped. Almost as an echo, my mother gasped and stood back. If she had a sword in her hand, she would have struck Alkyone down.

But as luck would have it she did not, and I did not want to begin my reign with blood of my compatriot on my hands.

Hades, now, I had to deal with my mother and her too zealous bodyguard, before I could find the warmth of Kal’s arms. But I had reckoned without my mother’s indomitable force of will. She stepped forward and looked Alkyone in the eye, and then she said, “Now, then, you who have betrayed my honor, follow what I do.” And Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, ruler for three thousand years, turned and knelt to me, her daughter, who had been kneeling to her only a few days ago. In a public act of humble obeisance, before I could stop her, with all her subjects looking on, she raised her lips to my fingers and said, “I promise on my honor and in faith, that I will in the future be faithful to the Empress Diana, never cause her harm and will observe my homage to her completely against all persons, in good faith and without deceit."

I looked down at my mother, and gently raised her to her feet and embraced her, kissing her on both cheeks. “There was no need for you to do this, mother.” “Yes, daughter, there was a need. I did not heed the signs of the zealots my bodyguards had become. If only I had curbed them, their actions would not have dishonored me and shamed Themyscira. How could they betray you and in doing so, betray me? I thank Athena for protecting you and keeping you safe to realize your destiny. Now by the very oaths that bind my guards and the Themysciran host, they are required to protect you and serve you, too, daughter.”

I looked at my mother then, feeling the full weight of an Empire on my shoulders, and told her, “Alkyone is yours to punish or to condone. I will not interfere in Themysciran affairs.”

Then, stepping back, I invited my mother, Donna and the entire Themysciran host to the dinner celebration that evening and excused myself. For now, I wanted only to be with Kal.

I walked quickly away from the scene of Themysciran dishonor, praying I never had to see such an event again.

***

I had almost reached the dais where the Sky Throne stood. I stopped and closed my eyes, letting the sun’s rays slant across my face. I almost laughed out loud. I’d expected to find a little province, a young prince, not to rule and have Kal at my side.

The breeze brought me his scent, the heady mix of peaches and honey that had my heart beating faster. A moment later and his strong arms wrapped around me. I pressed my face into his neck, my lips, tongue, teeth, brushing against his tantalizing skin.

“Your Grace,” he murmured, and I moaned into his lips in response. Kal laughed and hugged me tighter. His arms loosened and he pulled back. He had seen the scene with my mother and the Themyscirans. “Diana, I did not know about Alkyone, but I knew that someone from deep within Themyscira was providing the Senate with information. Was telling my mother and her closest advisors everything about you. I just did not know who it was…’ Kal’s eyes were shadowed with sorrow. “If I could have prevented this pain for you, I would have.”

“My mother has sworn allegiance to me, something I never wanted and never expected. I’ve left her to deal with Alkyone. Her pain will be more than mine on this issue.” I reassured him.

Still his serious eyes held me. “Kara?”

I released a slow breath. “Alive. Send Vril Dox to get her. Their new home is in Kandor.”

He gave a brief nod and a smile lurked on his mouth. “Yes, Your Grace.”

 “You’re enjoying saying that.”

Kal brushed the tangled hair back from my face, the affectionate gesture tightening my heart. “I thought fate would take you from me.” His mouth brushed mine, his lips cool but with the promise of the inner heat of his tongue. “I’ve waited too long.”

I slid my cold hands under his shirt, finding the warmth of his skin and he hissed. His teeth nipped at my bottom lip as I pressed myself to his hard body “How did this happen, Kal? I mean you didn’t…”

“You had marked me as yours, the first time we kissed. It was your first kiss, but it was I who submitted to your pull and not you to me, even though you were not fully aikaterine then. Besides, last night, I would never have let you truly kneel and submit to me, Diana. Though you knelt to me, simply kneeling was not enough. You needed to say the oath words and I needed to respond – that rite is as old as time. I prevented you from saying the oath words that would have bound you. You have no idea how tempted I was to tell you everything from the very beginning. Luckily each time I began to tell you, I was distracted by you…” He smiled against my mouth and my head felt light. “And I think that should be your next order.”

“The coronation?”

“All glamour and fakery. It hardly matters. Every important queen here has witnessed your rightful ascension.” His blue eyes sparkled just a bit and heat pooled low in my belly as his hand stroked hot over my waist and hip. “I want to demonstrate my devotion.”

“You do?” Was an Empress supposed to sound that breathless?

The smile he gave me was wicked. “I do.”