Empathy

04. A Little Premature

Author: The-Lady-Isis

Summary:

It wasn’t the most destruction she’d ever seen in Gotham. But it wasn’t far off. She was beamed down a few feet away from where Robin was trying to avoid the things that Queen was throwing at him while getting close enough to stop her. When it was an SUV hurtling towards him, it was too big and coming too fast for Tim to duck; Diana leapt in front of him and punched it – it flew right back to Queen and knocked her off her feet. She turned to Tim frowning. “Are you alright?”

She already knew he was; his relief was palpable. He gave her a quick smile. “Thanks, Wonder Woman.”

She liked Tim – he was a sweet boy, smart and dedicated with a ready smile. So was Dick, for that matter, and Barbara was a very friendly girl the few times they’d met. Privately, she’d always found it quite amusing that all of Bruce’s protégés were such sociable people while the head of the Batclan did his utmost not to encourage people to like him.

The car she’d pinned Queen under began shaking, and then the whole thing lifted into the air. Diana caught it, tore it casually in half and then flew at the girl – she could not think of her as a woman – with all the speed and strength she could muster. Just before she hit, though, Diana felt a stab of something that she did not remember feeling for years…fear. Frowning and pushing it aside, she returned her attention back to Queen, seeing the blank white eyes widen with trepidation and alarm. Strangely, it did not make Diana feel better. Rather, it made her feel like turning and running away as fast as she could. It was too late to do so however, since she was already hitting Queen square in the chest. Diana’s strength and momentum carried them back at least another thirty feet, and straight through the glass display windows. She landed heavily on the smaller woman, channelling the inexplicable fear into aggression and landing half a dozen punches across Queen’s nose, breaking it and several bones in the rest of her face. Once Queen was out and no longer a danger, the fear evaporated. Still unsettled, Diana didn’t stop.

When Ten barrelled into her, she had to. He caught her in a rugby tackle, knocking the wind out of her and putting her through several walls. There was no fear this time, only an almost frenzied anger from nowhere. She used it, slamming her elbow into the back of his neck, and then again and again until the huge bulk of Ten began to slow down. Not much, though, and with the aggression running high it was more difficult than it should have been to suppress the urge to break his thick neck. There was a sudden explosion of foul-smelling smoke which stopped him totally, forcing him to drop Diana and begin coughing harshly. Unfortunately Diana hit the floor surrounded by the fog. She immediately began choking as tendrils of fire invaded her lungs, sapping her strength almost as though it had been developed to target metas.

When Batman swooped down on a grappling hook, scooping her up out of the smoke, Diana amended that. It had been developed to target metas, obviously. His distrust of anyone with superpowers was well known. She wound her arms around his neck and coughed out the fog feeling slightly better. He trusted her. Hiding her smile, Diana enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms rather than the other way around. Landing flawlessly in an alcove of the cathedral, he put her gently down. He watched her until she’d stopped coughing, passing her some water. She took a long pull of it.

“Better?” he asked.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

They both took a second to look down on the situation. Whatever chemicals Bruce had put in the smoke had evidently worked; Ten was out cold. Queen was also still unconscious, and Nightwing and Robin were together taking down King, Tim keeping him distracted while Dick found the pressure points to knock King out. Up here, Diana felt much calmer, more like herself than she had all day. “You trained them well.”

He fired down to the ground where Zatanna was dodging Jack, firing random spells over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Diana followed, snatching Zatanna out of the way quickly and placing her down as Jack slammed his fist into the ground where she’d just been standing. Without missing a beat, Wonder Woman pushed back off again, catching Jack’s other arm and twisting it around his back. Being so flexible, it didn’t do anything – in fact the gang member only extended his neck around hers, then tightened, strangling her.

“Stonk ni eit!” Zatanna yelled.

With a strangled cry, Jack found all his limbs tying themselves in knots and trussing him up like a Christmas turkey. Unable to stand, he fell to the ground glaring in anger at Zatanna. Diana found herself also looking with narrowed eyes at the woman. Did she honestly think she was incapable of dealing with these things herself?

“Are you ok, Diana?” her friend asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

With an odd mix of concern and anger in her system, Diana frowned and put a hand on her forehead. “Headache,” she replied, shaking her head quickly. Zatanna was her friend. Her ally. She was concerned for her safety.

“You get hit?” the witch asked.

She shook her head. “Don’t think so,” she replied. “Come. Let’s throw these cretins in jail.” She walked forward, looping her lasso around Jack and dragging him without consideration for his comfort over the rubble. She and Zatanna walked over to the three Batclan members, all standing with their arms folded looking down on the other three villains. Diana tied them all together, still frowning, her headache increasing as the anger built the closer they got. She pulled the lasso tighter than she meant to in her fury. Batman looked at her with one eyebrow raised as Jack yelped in pain. “We need them alive, Princess.”

She glared back with narrowed eyes, but loosened the lasso anyway. Eventually the GCPD arrived to collect them – but one policeman raced up to the Dark Knight, panting. “Batman! The Joker’s got Commissioner Gordon and the Mayor at City Hall – he’s holding them hostage and is threatening to kill them unless-”

“I’m on the way,” Batman replied brusquely, inwardly cursing himself. Of course this had been a diversion.

“Need help?” Diana interjected.

“No, go back to the Watchtower. We can handle this.” Without further ado, Gotham’s protector and his two sons raced off, leaving Wonder Woman and Zatanna staring at each other.

Zatanna put a hand to her ear. “Zatanna to Watchtower. Wonder Woman and I are ready to be beamed back up.”

Gotham disappeared as the Watchtower took its place. Diana’s headache hadn’t eased, and she managed a weak smile at Zatanna before stumbling away. Zatanna sighed, watching her walk away and wondering how Wonder Woman managed to make stumbling look graceful.

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Thinking it was possibly the lack of caffeine giving her a headache, Diana made her way to the cafeteria. The doors opened – and immediately her headache got ten times worse. It was about 1830 GMT, so the cafeteria was packed, full of noisy, chattering heroes. Some were smiling, others frowning, and about a million conversations hit Diana at once. With no warning, Diana felt happy and sad and angry and in love and like laughing and as though she could cry but mostly she felt utterly confused about where in Hades all these feelings were coming from. It felt as though two needles were being driven into her temples. She turned and ran back to her room, leaning against the door once it had closed with her eyes closed, breathing hard. Batman was right – she really wasn’t alright. But what in Hera’s name was wrong with her?

Steeling herself, she left her room and made her way to the infirmary. With every step she took, her headache got further and further toward a migraine as she passed more members of the League. She ended up sprinting through the Watchtower until she got there, then hurtled through the doors with all the haste she could. Thankfully, J’onn was in there, and he looked up with a frown.

“Diana. What is it?”

She clenched her jaw and tried not to let the pain of his concern show on her face. “I think…something’s wrong with me.”

He got up, and she fought not to back up. “What?”

She shook her head. “I have no idea. And if the machines didn’t pick up anything abnormal, can you…look in my mind? See if there’s anything?”

He nodded and gestured for her to sit down. She did, but did not manage to suppress a flinch as he put his hands on either side of her face. His eyes glowed orange slightly, and she reflexively shut hers too. The next thing she knew, she was inside her mind.

She found herself standing on the steps of the temple of Athena, the buildings of Themyscira around them. When J’onn materialised next to her, she twisted her mouth. He frowned at her. “Is everything alright?”

She nodded. “Yes. I’m just…still unused to seeing male…anyones on the island.”

“Understandable. If there is anything you would prefer me not to see, simply imagine a door and close it. Now, what is the problem?”

Diana hesitated slightly. “I…am in pain,” she said. “Around people, I-” She stopped as worry welled up inside her. Along with all the other emotions she was still feeling, Diana reeled. Here, though, in what was basically Themyscira, it was easier to fall back into her warrior training. She calmed her breathing, accepted the pain, almost thanked it for letting her know something was wrong. With the acknowledgment it was easier to push aside – not gone, but ignored for the time being. She looked at J’onn. “Is it possible that I may have become a telepath?”

He frowned and looked around. “I do not think so. This – though it is quite fascinating it its way – is not the mind of a telepath. There are…more paths, in the mind if that is the case. For example, you can see everything here. You know where every trail leads. But in the mind of a telepath, there are mists and mysteries everywhere. You may follow them, and they will take you to other minds. There are always infinite possibilities as a telepath. Your mind is finite, as the minds of all humans are.”

“Then…what is happening to me, J’onn?”

“I am afraid I cannot tell you, Diana. Describe this pain to me. What causes it?”

“Being around lots of people. In fact…being around anyone…”

That wasn’t quite true, though. Before she was aware of making the connection, she and Bruce were standing on Gotham cathedral. It was odd, watching herself have a conversation. In the memory, though, it was not Batman, and nor was it Bruce Wayne, but a strange combination of the two. Strange to J’onn, she supposed, but not to her. It was the way she always saw him – the cowl was firmly in place, but translucent, the features of Bruce showing through clearly. She blushed slightly, then blushed more when those paths J’onn had been talking about appeared. Though it was quite clear where they led.

More than a dozen doors appeared, and then locked themselves, isolating the memory.

“Why are you showing me this?” J’onn asked.

“Because I felt fine when we were up there. During the fighting, I was…irrationally angry, and…afraid even, but once Br- Batman and I were clear of people, I felt better.”

“I see. It is possible-”

With a sharp breath, Diana opened her eyes to the bright lights of the Medical Bay. J’onn grimaced apologetically as he took his hands away. An alert had sounded, but it stopped almost immediately. Diana recognised it as the weekly fire drill.

“I apologise,” the Martian said. “The alert broke my concentration.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine, J’onn. I’m only-”

The doors hissed open, and an arguing Flash and Green Lantern entered. “Well if you’d looked where you were going-”

“I was looking, can I help it if I move too fast for you-”

“Too fast? Let’s see how fast you can move with my boot up your-”

J’onn cleared his throat, and they both looked toward the two people in the infirmary. “Uh, sorry,” Flash said. “But we kinda need your help, J’onn-”

“I was just leaving,” Diana said quickly, hopping off the seat, unable to bear the embarrassment anymore. She didn’t even know why she was embarrassed.

“But, Diana-”

“I’ll see you later, J’onn,” she called, waving to the others. She hurried to her room making an attempt to avoid as many people as possible. Once inside, though, she put a hand to her ear and cleared her throat, trying to make her voice as steady as possible. “Wonder Woman to Batman.”

There was a slight pause before he answered. “Go ahead.”

“Are you in the Cave?”

“Yes. Joker’s back where he belongs.”

“May I come down? I need your help with something.”

Another pause, and she could picture his frown. “Then transport down.”

“I’m on my way. Wonder Woman out.” Once the connection was terminated, she let out a long sigh of relief, then changed quickly, suddenly feeling cold. She left her room and headed for the teleports. Precisely forty three seconds later she was materialising in the Batcave.

Bruce was sitting in his usual winged chair, fingers dancing lightly across the keyboard. To his left, the glowing crystal they found in the cave three days earlier was sitting on a raised platform, wires snaking out from it and feeding a dozen different readings to the computer. “What can I do for you, Princess?”

She moved forward as he turned to regard her with unreadable eyes. His mouth softened very slightly though, and she knew he’d recognised the fact that something was wrong with her. Relief surged through Diana. There was no pain, no unexpected rush of emotion here – just the man she trusted absolutely to help fix whatever was wrong with her. “I…may have been a little premature when I said there was nothing wrong with me,” she confessed.

An eyebrow was raised in question.

“I’m…feeling emotions.”

“Is that unusual?”

“No, but there’s too much emotion. I know I’m more ruled by my passions than a lot of people in the League, but this is far beyond that. This-” She sighed and ran a hand distractedly through her hair and moved forward again, leaning against the monitor back and fixing her eyes on his. “This hurts, Bruce.”

“What do you think it is?” he asked.

“I thought it may have been some kind of telepathic skill developing.”

“Have you been to J’onn?”

“Yes, but he told me that wasn’t a possibility. And it isn’t thought, it’s emotion that is being affected. J’onn had no idea what was wrong with me. And he didn’t see anything in my mind.” She gave a laugh that sounded nervous, and then hung her head, not meeting his eyes. “I was afraid,” she whispered, ashamed. “Bruce, I…Fighting Queen, I was scared.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” he commented.

“It doesn’t feel like me either,” she muttered.

He leaned forward and put a hand on the mouse right next to her hand, not quite touching her. His eyes left hers, and darted up to the screen. He didn’t speak for another moment, his voice perfectly steady when he did. “We’ll find something, Princess.”

I promise.

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