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Unrequited

The empty caves on the outskirts of the isle of Aeaea were always cold and dark. This setting was very similar to the soul of its mistress.

The villainous Circe savored this moment as she sat upon her throne. Her small cadre of archaeologically proficient warriors had finally found her prize. Circe found herself impatient. It had only taken them a whole year to find the fabled Eye of Zeus. She sprung up from her makeshift throne and took a small box out of her lead scout's hands. She placed the box in the seat of her throne and removed the small glowing ball of crystals contained within it. She placed the ball on top of the box and kept her hands on top of it as she spoke two simple words.

"Show me."

Half a world away in London, Princess Diana lay in a deep and peaceful sleep in her spacious embassy bedroom. Suddenly, very suddenly, her brow furrowed, she began to toss and turn, and her skin broke out in a heated cold sweat as her dreamscape changed…

…Diana was flying along one of her favorite mountain ridges, basking in the gentle breeze from the ocean air whipping through her long hair, trying to forget about all of her political headaches. She was content, relaxed and at peace. Then, she caught sight of a flash in the sky, and suddenly he was soaring toward her. At first, she thought that something might be wrong and maybe The League needed them. Then, she noticed that he was smiling, and a wave of joy washed over her. He was happy to see her. She remembered that he was always so happy to see her.

Barely slowing his blistering approach, Kal swept Diana up in his arms and together they began a mid-air tumble toward the soft grassy fields below them, swinging each other round and round. Diana found herself laughing, something she had been doing less and less in her real life. Crashing into the grass and still rolling playfully, Diana pulled Kal into a deep wet passionate kiss. Their strong hands quickly freed each other of the clothing between them, and moments later they were pressed tightly against one another. They kissed so deeply that they lost where one ended and the other began, a union which seemed it would never end…

…At that moment, Diana sat up in her bed with a deep gasp of air. She was sweating profusely and she couldn't seem to catch her breath. She noticed that her hands were shaking and her heart was racing, her body in a state of shock from her incredibly vivid dream.

Then, she looked up, and caught a glimpse of the nearly invisible apparition of Circe, floating near her ceiling. With a barely audible evil cackle of victory, Circe was gone.

Diana was out of her bed like a shot. Barely taking time to snatch up her lasso, she smashed through her window and took to the air. Clad only in her thin negligee, Diana soared at breakneck speed through the sky, heading directly for Metropolis, praying that she would not be too late. Diana knew exactly the man Circe was after.

Kal was in the midst of another restless night. Truth be told, he hadn't slept well at all in the three years since Lois had died in the great earthquake. He only attempted to rest now, praying that his tired soul and body would not give out on him while he was in the middle of one of his struggles to keep the world safe. Kal was realizing his limitations, and he knew that it was just a matter of time before he would fall.

Suddenly, too late he knew, he realized that he was not alone in his bedroom. His eyes snapped open to see a woman he recognized, the master villainess Circe, swinging a long glowing sword down toward his chest. Kal began to move to stop her, but at the moment that the tip of the blade touched the skin of his chest, he found himself completely immobilized. He couldn't move a muscle. He found himself laying absolutely helpless with his arms outstretched at his sides, as Circe stood above him, pushing the blade down into the center of his chest.

Kal began to feel excruciating pain emanating from his chest out to his extremities. It was as if he could feel the steel of the blade pushing through his very cells and molecules, in a strange bewitching kind of slow motion. Kal felt powerless. It seemed as if he were going to die a slow agonizing death.

Suddenly, his large bedroom window exploded, and a massive gust of wind blew through the space like a tornado, leaving the stunning Princess Diana standing in its wake, poised for combat.

"Release him, Circe! Now!" Diana hollered.

"Make me, little sister," Circe said through gritted teeth as it took all of her strength to continue her spell and force the blade downward. "Try as hard as you can."

Diana was airborne before Circe finished her words, soaring toward her and swinging a massive punch with all her might at Circe's head. To Diana's dismay, the punch went clean through Circe and Diana crashed into the wall on the opposite side of the bedroom. "You can't hurt this astral form, Diana," growled Circe. "But I can hurt you."

Circe pushed down harder on the glowing crystal orb she had attached to the handle of the sword, and Kal hollered loudly from the pain before he gritted his teeth in agony. Diana swung again with all her power, determined to tear Circe's head off, but again she merely passed through her. Diana landed on her feet this time and flipped her golden lasso at Circe's neck, but even it was powerless to grasp her!

Circe laughed. "Even your lasso cannot harm me with the Eye of Zeus! This time , my victory will be complete. It is truly a shame you must perish, Kryptonian," she said as she looked down at his state of undress menacingly. "You are the most excellent specimen on the planet. I can see how you slipped her heart away from her. And with your death right before her eyes as she was powerless to stop it, she will be finally broken!"

"No!" screamed Diana.

Diana was desperate and enraged. She began to use her immense strength to hurl tables, dressers, cabinets and anything else she could grab at Circe, all to no avail. Diana ran over to the bed and dropped down to her knees to lift it by the rails, but she found that it would not budge, obviously caught in the mystical flux of Circe's spell. Still, Diana strained to lift it with all her might. At least it was something tangible, and if she could disrupt it then maybe it would disrupt Circe as well.

"I can see into your heart, Kryptonian," Circe smiled. "It is the one element of you which is weak. I can sense it. How fitting! In you she has seen her own future. Once you are no more, she will be doomed, forced to spend all of time without the one which would have been her love eternal! She will be crushed, vulnerable and broken! Eventually, she will fall before me, and I shall rule forever!"

At her words, the bottom of the bed crashed back onto the floor with a crushing thump. Diana was broken.

"Circe, please don't do this," she pleaded in a heartfelt whisper. "Please. I surrender. I'll do anything you ask. I… I'll be your slave. Please, just release him." She couldn't stop the tears which fell from her eyes.

"Nooo…," Kal suddenly croaked weakly. With the last ounces of strength he had left, Kal struggled to reach his right hand out to Diana. "For you," he forced out through the pain. "I am… at peace… with my end. I will… die… for you."

Diana threw herself forward and grasped his hand with both of her own, holding on to him desperately. Circe stared on at their connection and forced back her feelings of envy and jealousy. With a hiss of hatred, she forced the blade downward deeper into Kal's chest. Small tendrils of blood began to seep from Kal's eyes, ears, mouth and nostrils.

Slowly, a change began to take place deep within Diana. She felt what seemed like a strange kind of electricity flow from where she and Kal's hands were joined and flowed outward to seem to infuse her whole body. Diana's eyes began to glow bright white, and she leaped into the air.

"No! You will not take him from me!"

Diana swung around to straddle Kal's chest on her knees, and with both hands she suddenly reached out to take hold of the sword! She could feel the sharp blade cut deeply into her hands as her blood spilled down its edge, but Diana grabbed it harder and began to pull it upward out of Kal's chest.

Circe was stunned. She hadn't thought that this was possible. In the deep recesses of her mind, she realized that Diana was accessing another power… a greater power… the power of love.

Circe pushed downward hard on the sword and orb with all her might, while Diana pulled upward with all her strength. They began to exert tremendous pressure on the sword and its adjoining orb, until deadly tendrils of bright lightning energy began to spark through the air all around the two women. Both women screamed from the top of their lungs, a crescendo of their intense battle.

Then, Diana prevailed! She yanked the sword out of Kal's chest and smashed the crystal orb against Circe's chin, shattering it and sending the glowing crystals flying all over the room. Circe fell backward over the far edge of the bottom of the bed, and before her body could hit the floor, Diana was in the air. With a warrior's cry, she spun the sword above her head to get a death grip and came down with a strike designed to end Circe once and for all!

Thunk!

Diana sat on her knees with the blade deeply embedded in the floor up to the hilt… but Circe was gone.

Gathering herself, Diana quickly tore the bottom of her negligee into strips and used them as a makeshift tourniquet for her hands. Exhausted, she then crawled her way up on the bed to Kal.

"Kal? Are you all right?" she asked, wiping the blood off his face.

"I'll live," he answered weakly. "Come here."

Kal pulled Diana down to rest on top of him and he laid his chin against her forehead. As much as she longed to be close to him like this, Diana immediately felt uncomfortable. She felt naked before him, and it wasn't just because she was laying on top of him wearing nothing but a sheer thin see through toga negligee which had been torn off up to the tops of her thighs. No. Circe had laid her bare. She had told Kal things which Diana had only recently begun to accept herself, things which she hadn't yet wanted him to know. With her pride crushed and her heart cracked wide open, Diana felt that she needed to distance herself from Kal.

"I should go," she said as she quietly stood up from the bed and slowly walked toward the broken open window.

"Diana…wait," Kal called as he managed to stand up.

Diana stopped, but she didn't turn around to face him.

"Circe was right," said Kal. "She was right about me in… everything she said. My heart is weak, and it has been for some time. Diana, I have to face the fact that… the only thing that has been keeping my heart beating for the past two years… has been you," Kal whispered as he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her back into his arms. "I have been afraid to truly live… to love… again, because the hurt was so deep inside. But Circe was right, if I don't fight this battle inside, eventually I will fall on the outside. Diana, what does a warrior do when they find their own weakness?"

"The warrior must then train in that area, to make it stronger."

"Will you train with me? My heart needs you… and only you," he asked quietly.

"Kal, I've had feelings for you for so long," Diana said as she turned around in his arms to look up into his eyes. "I… I'm not sure how to begin…"

"I have an idea," Kal said with a slight smile. "Will you do something for me?"

"Anything, Kal," she whispered.

"Go out with me. On a regular date. Like normal ordinary people. Will you?"

Diana's answer was to pull him down to her for a soft, gentle loving kiss, their lips touching sweetly.

Kal stared down into her eyes when their lips parted. "Will you do something else for me?"

"Anything," Diana whispered again.

"Will you stay with me tonight?"

Diana's answer was to pull him down to her for a hard, wet passionate kiss, their lips and tongues intertwining with heated fervor…

Perhaps their date had already begun…

The Beginning…