Chapter 68 – Wonder Pt. 4

August 22, 2010 -  Washington, DC

The Wonder Dome

10:01:26

I hate training… Connor thought as he lay face up on the flagstones, trying to catch his breath and failed to count his bruises.

“Hyah!” Came the cry above him as he saw the most glorious pair of legs descending toward him, one golden sandaled foot extended to pound his head into the ground. Eyes widening, he desperately rolled out of the way, just in time for Diana’s stomp to shatter the flagstones where his head had been a moment before. 

This time, he smoothly rolled to his feet in a crouch, letting the artificial muscle memory of his memory palace combat training take hold. Diana had named it the flow state, where he simply let the telepathically ingrained training operate while being able to monitor it consciously. It still felt odd, like his body was listening to someone else’s commands, but his conscious mind remained in control. He was finally beginning to feel the synthesis between indoctrinated instruction and his active thoughts.

He would resent Diana’s teaching methods more if they weren’t so frustratingly effective.

I can still resent her trying to curb stomp me, he decided as she leapt forward, her winged sandals giving one beat of their extended pinions to give her a double jump that she turned into a flying dropkick. He couldn’t dodge this one, so he put up his guard and caught her leading foot on his guard with bruising force, eliciting a grunt. He could see Diana’s grin, and couldn’t help but match it with one containing a bit more slyness. Fast as a rattlesnake, he pushed her foot off his guard and snatched at her ankle, making her eyes widen in surprise. He planted his feet and spun Diana by her ankle, even as she kicked at him with her free foot. 

The spinning built momentum for what came next and kept Diana off balance. Connor hunched his shoulders to protect his head, but still took a few kicks to the head before he twisted Diana in his grip and swung her overhead and then flat against the ground. The talaria beat furiously and made the erratic swing feel like he was wrestling with a hawk by the talons, but they weren’t enough to break free before she crashed to the ground with an echoing report.

Quiet suddenly descended on the training yard as the sound bounced off the flagstones and against the Star Hall, as a hazy dustcloud rose from the pulverized stone. He froze, partly in surprise that his ploy had worked and partly in fear that he had actually hurt her. But even as he switched to infrared to penetrate the dust cloud to check on her, Diana burst back out of dust and spear tackled him. His breath escaped him in a whoosh as she hit him in the midsection, but instead of going to the ground, she rose into the air, gaining altitude with him on her shoulder and her arms wrapped around his waist. Connor tried to reorient himself from the sudden reversal and change in altitude, his rising panic as the ground grew smaller breaking his concentration and making the flow state start to fray.

Elbows rained down on Diana’s back but he lacked leverage to give them power, and Diana barely made a grunt as she weathered them. Then she made another move that flowed so smoothly and quickly that he was actually gaping when he noticed she had reversed her hold, and now held him around the waist from the back, just as her flight reached an arc and turned into an upside down, screaming dive. The world became an even more confusing upside-down blur, right before they crashed back to Terra. 

Stunned, Connor looked around blearily as dust enveloped him, pain shooting through his head and shoulders. Belatedly he realized he was upside down, his own legs dangling down from above him, the tips of his boots strangely close to his face. The iron grip around his waist released, and his bottom half flopped down. He groaned, clutching his head, and once more stared up at the bright summer sun overhead, still rising to its zenith. For a long moment, he once more lay there and simply caught his breath while he watched the distant clouds float by.

…Did she just give me a flying German suplex?

He mentally reviewed the last few seconds, replaying their relative positions and the confusing tableau of the world falling away and then flipping upside down, before reconnecting with his roots on terra firma. Via his head.

She DID give me a flying German suplex!

Damn, that’s actually pretty cool. Wonder Woman just did pro wrestling moves on me…

That idea was something like a fantasy he’d had when he was 13, but the reality hurt a lot more. Nothing seemed broken but his whole body ached at this point, and he decided he was done with training for now.

Diana’s face suddenly appeared, blotting out a third of the sky as she towered over him. He studiously kept his eyes fixed on her face, even as he saw her shapely legs straddle his head.

“Up for more?” She asked with a cocky grin and a hand on her hip.

“Please, no.” He whinged, closing his eyes briefly.

“Already giving up? Its only been five hours. We’ve barely gotten started.” She said with a mocking lilt. Connor sighed.

“Did we really have to start before dawn?” He asked plaintively.

“We only have a week of undistracted time, and we need to make the most of it.” She said sternly, looking at him expectantly. With another sigh, he nodded and rolled over, slowly getting to his feet. He dusted himself off before returning to his starting position, as Diana did likewise. She smiled, clearly pleased he was getting up for more, and the radiant sight gave him butterflies. It didn’t really make any of his aches and pains vanish, but it did provide enough motivation that he squared up again.

He grinned at her, and she dropped her center of gravity, clearly ready to charge again.

They had been at it for hours, ever since Diana had woken him up at 4 AM to begin the day’s training regimen. She had him make them both breakfast, yogurt studded with oats and fresh fruit slices, before a plunge into the Bay and swimming a dozen laps around the Wonder Dome’s artificial island. It was a bracing way to start the day, but any hopes of Diana joining him and seeing her in a bathing suit was dashed as she simply flew into the air and shouted encouragement at him from above the water. It wasn’t a particularly challenging warmup, as he had accompanied Kaldura for aquatic training in the waters around Mt. Justice several times. But Diana kept pace with him the entire time, and demanded he maintain his sprint swimming speed.

After that began the combat training, and it hadn’t let up since. They had started with sparring like they did in the Cave, but outside on the flagstone training yard at greater intensity. The training yard was a raised platform a yard high, a hundred feet squared, and with precisely fitted flagstones lining it. Said flagstones were much the worse for wear after their sparring. There were also sand and gravel lined pits with medieval looking training equipment nearby. The Wonder Dome’s ancient aesthetics gave the training an antiquated feel that made Connor feel like he was having a kung fu training montage. He could imagine Spartan warriors training in similar conditions, and judging by Diana’s lack of restraint, he thought Sparta was probably her model.

Or maybe the Amazons inspired the Spartans. Either way, she’s kicking my ass.

That thought had made him angry at first, as it kept happening. But every bout took longer for her to take him down, and each time she offered instruction that improved on what had done him in the last time. Then she had started digging into how accessing the combat training felt, and experimented with helping him unlock the flow state through sudden and violent peril. It had started working involuntarily as a reaction, but now he could draw it out willfully. Keeping that mentality was proving harder under pressure, but Diana seemed pleased at his progress. The goal was for him to eventually master the knowledge already inside of him, until fighting felt as natural as anything else, and the flow state wasn’t needed anymore. When designing his training regimen, she explained that she had consulted with J’oann about Martian telepathic learning techniques. Thus their current objective of learning how to integrate it into the user’s muscle memory so it became their own.

They had begun sparring at half speed and strength, and it was an education in how powerful Terra’s Wonder Woman was. Connor’s half power and Diana's half power were not remotely the same, and hers was supplemented by far more training and experience. Unlocking the flow state had let him start catching up, along with her patient instruction. Once he had started adapting to her moves on the fly, she had gradually ramped up the power level. At the beginning, it was like sparring with Kaldura, even though Diana had his teammate beat on every metric, except for the slippery nature of Kaldura’s water bearer weapons. As the intensity increased, it was more like fighting Rikki with M’gann’s density shifted power; supremely skilled, tactically brilliant and overwhelmingly powerful. M’gann couldn’t maintain her powerhouse form for long, but Diana had no such limits.

Thus, the current escalation curve. She had started utilizing her flight in the previous bout, and it was frustrating him. Her flight seemed to work differently than he expected; the Wonder Woman he knew just flew, a blessing from Hermes. The real Diana before him relied on her Talaria, and the wingbeats from her sandals actually appeared to propel her. They could make single, powerful beats that let her do double jumps and the like, or they could beat like a humming bird and let her soar through the sky. The glittering little wings at her ankles drew his eyes again and again.

I have to watch the wings, he thought, glancing down at her feet before they began. She can’t start flying unless they’re beating. 

He took a deep breath, focusing not on Diana’s distractingly beautiful face, but on her footwork. The right foot slid back ever so slightly, and his super hearing heard the grinding of the grit against the stones. Senses focused like a laser, he saw the bulge in her calf as she applied force to the ground. Then, the twinned twitch of the dainty golden wings on her rear leg.  

There!

It was barely enough forewarning to react at all. Diana launched herself at him like a missile, horizontal in the air. She hadn’t bothered with starting on the ground, just kicked off with a burst of acceleration from the sandals as the wings beat furiously. Connor spun out of the way as she rocketed past him, the wind of her passage blowing the dust from the training ground. She arced up and around, bleeding momentum to make a tight turn and come back around, the sandal wings a golden blur he could distinguish but only if he focused his super vision.

Diana stooped and dove at him, fists held out before her like a battering ram. Again he spun to avoid her but this time she slowed at the last second and threw a knee out sideways that clipped him in the shoulder and sent him flying. He felt the flow state again and let it pirouette his tumbling body, turning his tumble into a roll. Landing in a low crouch, he used the rest of his conscious focus to lean into his senses and read the micro expressions to tell her next move.

She was at the other end of the training ground, and did a front flip in mid air, just above the ground, air braking as she did so with both feet thrust forward in an airborne stomp. The Talaria beat furiously to counter her momentum, and she glanced over her shoulder at him as she kicked out. The wings beat with her kick, and she rocketed at him again, corkscrewing through the air as she completely reversed direction and came at him again. The switch took less than a second, and then she was in his face. He skipped back, each super strong step hurling him back as he maintained distance. Diana was grinning with appreciation as she saw him adapting to her aerial antics, and he grinned back.

Diana doesn’t just let the Talaria carry her, she combines their wing beats with her own footwork. She’s kicking off the air to change direction, using the strong wing beats. The physics of that are so wonky but they’re literal magic sandals from a god, so…

He slowed a step as he came to the edge of the training ground and she poured on the speed. There was no hope of outrunning her; she was far faster in the air than he was on the ground, and part of the restrictions of the spar was they had to stay on the training ground. Above it was, apparently, fine but it gave him a ring he had to confine himself to. Diana grinned wider as he came up to the edge, anticipation on her face as she hurtled at him.

Connor grinned even wider, and focused on the sandal’s wingtips, watching their beats and timing each one.

Then he hit the edge of the training ground and simply let himself fall backwards.

He briefly saw Diana’s confusion on her face as she dropped out of sight momentarily, and then she was over him. He reached up as she flew over him, fingertips tracing her thighs, then her greaves, then the sandals before clamping down on the tiny wings at her ankles. It felt like grabbing a furiously spinning power tool, bucking in his hands, but he clamped down regardless. He felt a pang of worry that he would damage them, but the metal wings were springy and seemed indestructible. As soon as he clamped down on them and they couldn't beat anymore, Diana immediately began nose diving into the ground, which was only a few feet below.

They tumbled across the sandy pit together as she kicked her legs and he tried to hold on to her like a bucking bronco. It was a chaotic flying tangle of legs and arms, bouncing off the ground repeatedly. They crashed to a stop, rolling a few more times and he finally let go of her ankles. Instantly, she spun on top of him, grabbing his wrist and locking her thick thighs around his shoulder, bending his right arm back in an arm bar.

“Yield!” She said as she began applying pressure, starting to bend his elbow the wrong way. Pain started shooting even as he batted at her sandaled feet, which were crossed over his neck.

“Ah, no! You yield! Ring out!” He shouted back, straining his arm to try to break the hold. But Diana applied more leverage with her legs, and with the inevitable power of a hydraulic press, his arm began bending back again. Then she paused in her tender ministrations, but didn’t release him.

“Your condition was not to leave the training ground.” Diana insisted, and Connor saw his opening.

“Ah, I didn’t leave it! I was briefly airborne, falling, and then I was flying with you, and then we were both falling. And you landed first. Face first!” He argued triumphantly, somewhat undermined by his strangled words as Diana’s ankles pressed against his neck. She was quiet, considering his words. She was breathing heavily, and he could feel the power and warmth in her muscled thighs as they trapped his arm. He became very aware of the sweat glistening there, and her iron grip around his wrist. He started feeling hot, and it wasn’t the summer heat.

Then she suddenly released him, and the straining of his arm suddenly rolled him over till he was facedown in the sand, breathing heavily for multiple reasons. He sat up on his knees, watching as Diana effortlessly kipped up onto the sand, the morning sun behind her. Her shadow fell upon him, and he was struck by her fierce and radiant majesty.

She towered over him, a body perfectly sculpted into a platonic ideal of warrior beauty. The breeze blew her raven hair back, and she idly pushed an errant strand back around her circlet. Muscle defined every inch of her exposed limbs, but it wasn’t the razor sharp definition of a water starved bodybuilder. She had a curvaceous, feminine weight to her, a healthy layer of fat softening each edge into a pleasing hourglass shape. Her red and gold bustier armor gleamed, along with the gold of her circlet, belt and sandals. It was matched by the silver of her bracers and greaves, and the five pointed stars on the tassets of her matte blue pteruges. Diana put her hands on her hips, looking down at him with pride and faint amusement.

In her eyes he read something else, something that made his heart race. He swallowed and got up to his feet.

Diana looked him up with an appraising eye, then smiled broadly. Even her teeth were perfectly pearly white. 

“Well done, Connor. You faced a superior foe with mobility capabilities you could not match, and intuited the best response to nullify that advantage and bring the battle back to where you could fulfill your victory conditions. I am very proud of you.”

Connor’s heart raced and the butterflies had migrated back to his stomach as he basked in her praise. He felt a blush creep up his face, but sternly maintained eye contact. Something changed in Diana’s eyes, and he saw concern in them, as well as longing. The silence dragged until she spoke and the spell was broken.

“That’s enough for this morning. We’ll take an early lunch and start on testing the limits of your powers this afternoon.”

“Right, great. What’s for lunch?” He replied eagerly. Breakfast had certainly been healthy, if not particularly filling for all the exercise.

“That is for you to figure out, my apprentice.” She laughed at his shock before heading into the central building.

********

The kitchen attached to the lower level living quarters was expansive, sleek and modern. It reminded Connor of their kitchen at the Cave, every appliance shiny and brand new, and obviously not used much. He had to see anyone else staffing the Wonder Dome, but he assumed since it was an embassy there had to be some staff. But they weren’t around today, so he dutifully followed Diana’s orders and prepared them lunch. It wasn’t much, he had to admit. He wasn’t much of a cook. 

He had found pita pockets and decided on gyros, with pickles and chips. That seemed to be a safe choice with his limited skills. Panic set in when he looked in the fridge and found a diverse selection of deli meats, cheeses and vegetables, and had no idea what Diana liked. Forced to swiftly decide, he went with stuffing both gyros with an Italian sub’s contents, and they didn’t look too bad. He found a tray and a pitcher of lemonade in the fridge, and brought it out to a patio area overlooking the training yard.

“Lunch is served!” He declared as he set down the tray and gave Diana’s hers, offering to pour her lemonade before sitting, which she accepted with a smile.

They set to eating and while hunger drove him to devour his gyro, he couldn’t help but admire Diana as she ate. The gyro could have been more tightly wrapped, so shredded lettuce and bits of meat threatened to drip out, but Diana ate it with perfect grace and manners. Self conscious, he slowed down and stopped wolfing his down. Even with his incredible body control, he wasn’t as dainty and bits and crumbs did fall out of his, to Diana’s amusement. Her bell like laughter set his heart soaring as they relaxed under the shade of the ivy cloaked trellis that covered the patio. The sun shone, the sea air blew, and he had lunch with the most beautiful woman in the world.

“Not that I mind…” he began around his gyro. “But why am I doing the cooking?”

“Because an apprentice must master all the skills of life, which includes meal preparation.” Diana said in the intense way she adopted when imparting a lesson. It made him sit up straighter. “As your mentor, it is my duty to see you receive that instruction to prepare you. My understanding is that you have never been responsible for providing for yourself, so that is another skill for you to hone.”

Connor chewed on that thought, and a bite of his gyro. 

That’s true. My parents always cooked at home, and I didn’t help out much. Then I got sick again at the age where other kids were starting to become independent…

He swallowed his food, but the lump in his throat remained.

She figured that part out, but didn’t want to point it out. Just identified a hole in my life skills and set up a training regimen for it.

It spoke to her concern for him, how much she cared, and how competent she was at providing this kind of mentorship. Gratitude flooded him. She hadn’t dug into the why, either, to spare him having to dwell on it or get embarrassed by it.

“We will have more hands on instruction for dinner, however. Cereals and sandwiches do not rise to the definition of cooking, in my experience.” She said, a twinkle in her eyes as he froze, mid bite. She chuckled at his self consciousness.

Then she laughed at his consternation when he let olive oil drip out of the bottom of his gyro and onto his shirt. Embarrassment flared but he found himself laughing along with her, which made his heart sing. They laughed together, long and full, and it made the day seem even brighter. Laughter faded into a companionable silence that they enjoyed together, listening to the lapping of the waves and the cries of the gulls. When she reached over with her napkin to get a spot on his shirt that he missed, he froze at the unexpected and intimate touch. The sudden and intimate touch surprised him, and she noticed. She quieted and set her napkin down before placing her hand on his.

Diana was taller than him by several inches, but her hand didn’t dwarf his. It was warm but not soft, nor was it rough and callused like he expected. She was a warrior princess, after all. Instead, her palm was smooth and tough, like good, well oiled leather. Beautiful but functional, used to hard work and a sword’s hilt. He felt his own warmth rising yet again as he slowly raised his eyes to meet her, swallowing.

She inclined her head a bit, looking at him across the table, and he wanted to swim in her crystal blue eyes forever. Her mouth formed a small smile as her touch lingered and he felt a spark between them. Trepidation filled him as he wondered what was coming; he remembered their first training session at the Cave and how she’d schooled him. It made him want to squash the butterflies swarming in his core.

I’m imagining this. She’s not interested in me. She’s not going to-

“Connor… are you in love with me?” She asked and his heart dropped into his stomach. A wave of heat washed over him as he knew he must be turning beat red and he felt sweat prickle his brow.

“I… no! That’s- !” He sputtered, his anxiety growing like the giant’s beanstalk.

“Its ok, Connor. Really. You can be honest.” Diana replied, calmly meeting his gaze and applying a reassuring pressure to his hand. He was frozen in place, but her touch was a warm constant. Taking a deep breath, he desperately reached for the calmness of the flow state since every other one of his body’s systems was going crazy. He could hear his own heartbeat race, normally something he found impossible to focus on. 

Diana’s heartbeat was strong and steady, as if she hadn’t just asked him to pull his own heart out.

But her voice was even and her eyes held no judgement, even as they drew him deeper in to bathe in their cyan depths. He felt her warmth and compassion, and the lack of judgement there. She had asked him for his truth, and awaited it without prejudice. 

Connor sat and thought, focusing on the warmth of her hand. How it made him feel; her concern, her care. How much he admired her; her strength, her character. The fact that she was the most physically ideal woman he’d ever met went unstated because of how obvious it was. He trusted her, but her bluntness made him uncomfortable and made him question his feelings. It all seemed too soon to ask such a thing, or give an answer.

“I’ve… never been in love.” Connor admitted. “I don’t know if I do.” 

The admission of uncertainty felt safe, if incomplete. He fervently wished they would move on from the topic, but Diana’s eye contact nor her hand released him, and he squirmed inside at her regard. The panic in him was fading, though. 

“That is to be expected, from one so young.” Diana said with a brilliant smile. “I have loved and been loved many times, Connor. It is a feeling that fills you in your core and overflows your heart until it feels fit to burst. It occupies your thoughts and turns every look, word and touch of your beloved into a symphony of sensation and emotion you cannot look away from. It is an obsession that ever turns your thoughts towards them and fills your dreams with their faces.” 

Connor’s mouth fell open at her poetry, and the passion with which she delivered it. He felt his soul resonate and realized consciously what he had already known, but had feared to say out loud when she asked.

I am in love with her.

It was a fearful thing, his love. It was terrifying to have her ask when he hadn’t been ready to speak it aloud, and then for her to paint a picture of it so that he would know its shape and color. He was seen, and he knew that she knew, just from her question and explanation and the piercing intensity of her gaze. For all his power, it felt like being a mouse before a perched hawk. The weight of her attention paralyzed him, and he feared she would reject him. That she would think his love was a childish crush and dismiss it. But she did fill his thoughts when she was around; he reviewed his experiences and realized no one else had evoked such reactions in him. Love felt amazing, he realized, even when it couldn’t possibly be reciprocated.

“...Yes. I think I- no, I am.” He said around the lump in his throat, and held his breath.

Diana smiled even more dazzlingly at him, and it was like a sunrise just for him, even brighter than the one they’d watched during the morning swim. His heart soared and a flicker of hope ignited in his chest.

“I thought as much.” She said cryptically, with a coy smile. Then took a deep breath, but not a sigh. Whatever occupied her mind, she was taking this seriously.

“I told you last night of the creation of the Amazons, but not of my birth. Before we speak any more of love, you must understand something about me. You must understand what it is you love. I will never disregard such a declaration, honestly made. But you must know the totality of me.” Diana said, her tone reinforcing the seriousness of her words. That edge shocked him out of the gooey morass of love that was bubbling up in him, and he focused.

“Queen Hippolyta, my mother, led the Amazons to Themyscira after the Gynomachy. There they established our home, and rested from their labors. They built a new queendom, a new society, and new lives beyond their duty to ending Man’s World. They had been warriors, and now they could be everything else. So they each became what they wished to be; farmers, craftswomen, artists, philosophers. I could regale you for hours about the wonders of our Paradise Island, but that is not for today.” 

Connor nodded along, though he did want to hear more about Themyscira. It certainly sounded like a paradise.

“She alone retained the same duty and station as before. My mother has never laid down her sword, because she was the guarantor of Woman’s World. All Amazons train in the arts of war, and those who fought in the Gynomachy remember well their old skills. But Mother has always known the cost of that battle, and the worry that our victory may not last.” Diana continued, a note of concern in her voice.

He wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that Hippolyta held the Harpe, and was ready to defend her… dominion, still.

“But in all the millenia since then, she has rarely ever dispatched the Amazons to war again. We faded into myth and legend long ago. Gaea’s Way was meant to inspire a better, more loving and peaceful world. But it did not wipe away all the world’s ills, or change every part of human nature. Queens and empresses still played the game of thrones, wars were still fought, injustices still occurred.” Diana was clearly unhappy with that state of affairs, if her tone and life’s work were any judge. “Mother saw these things, keeping an ever watchful eye on the world with the Magic Sphere, gifted by Hera. But she sought to let humanity make its own path, learn from its own mistakes. She always said she did not fight the Gynomachy to make herself Terra’s hegemon.” 

“It was not until the 20th century and the Great War that she lost hope, and felt the great work had been for naught. She saw all the wonders of progress and history turned to horrors. Hephaestus had unleashed machines in the Gynomachy that had terrified the Amazons, and she now saw that those wonders were now as common as bricks and iron knives. She saw Ares’ hand in every bloody assault and gruelling defense. She feared that the goddess’ dream for humanity was lost. Women’s World had repeated all the mistakes of Man’s.” Diana said bitterly.

I haven’t looked into that part of Terra’s history, but if ours is anything to go by… yeah. It broke the spirit of a lot of people, made them see no future for us.

“She was lost, and not even her consort Phillipa could rouse her spirit. She wandered the island, lost in the fog of grief for the world. Until years later, and she finally knelt down on the beach, and her tears watered the sands and mixed with the waters of the sea. My mother wondered what was the point of all the bloodshed, if she had not made a better world at all. It would all have been for nothing. Merely the passing of a crown from one bloody hand to another.”

“But the Muses came to her then, and she idly played with the sea soaked sand. Mother has always been a fine sculptor, it is her favorite of the arts.” Diana said with another brilliant smile, her pride evident.

“So she contemplated the future, and what it meant to believe in it after having seen the litany of nightmares she had witnessed in the Magic Sphere. So she began to sculpt.” She said quietly.

“A baby.” Connor interjected, unable to stop himself even while spellbound by Diana. “You.”

Diana favored him with her smile again.

“So you know my tale from your world?” She asked with a little surprise, and he shook his head slightly.

“Yes, but no. Its her story, not yours. I want to hear yours.” He answered, and she nodded after a moment.

“As you say. But you have forgotten dearest Nubia. Mother shaped two children in the sand. She shaped the most beautiful children in the sand, infants in their cradles, the hope of all mothers and the embodiment of the future. She poured her love and devotion, the dedication to the legacy she sought to leave, and yearning for completion into her work. All her fears and sorrows melted away, and her heart lifted. She smiled as she looked down upon her work to see, and stood to walk along the beach again. Until a light descended and she felt the goddesses’ touch all around her, and turned around when she heard a wail. The cry of living babes.”

Diana’s smile was a thing fit only for the greatest of poets to describe.

“The goddesses had blessed us, as they had the Firstborn. Unlike them, Hera attended and was first to bless us. How Nubia was lost to us until I found my other half, we shall not dwell on. I would guess you know the rest of the story from there?” She asked, and he felt his ears burn a bit as he considered how and what he knew.

“Yes. I know what our Wonder Woman did, but I saw it at the Quick Museum. You joined the war effort, you were a hero along with the All-Star Squadron.” He quickly stated. The timeline was becoming clear to him; Diana and Nubia had been born after WW1, and would have been his age during WW2. He felt a pang of sympathy when he realized how old she was when she revealed herself to the world and fought the greatest battle the world has ever known.

“Quite right.” She said with a faint smile. “But the blessings of the goddesses… mine are not like the other Amazons.” Diana said, and for the first time she closed her hand over his. Her warm touch became a solid grip, and he worried what she meant.

“My blessings are manifold, and I am eternally grateful to the goddesses for them. Each granted something different, and one day I will tell you of them. But last to bless me was Aphrodite, and her gift was the strongest of all.” Diana said, and his worries multiplied at her worried tone. “She granted me a fraction of her very own beauty and charm. That which twists hearts and bends thoughts toward the object of their desire. Passion as deep and broad as the ocean itself.” She said, seeming guilty. “Love, Connor. She filled me with her love.”

As she spoke, she stared deeply into his eyes and it was hard to focus on the words. But he processed them slowly. Wheels turned in his head, even as love seemed to gum up the works. Then he realized, and he wasn’t sure how long he had been lost in her eyes, trying to understand her meaning. He plucked at meaning, examined his memories of the multiple origins of Wonder Woman, and what he knew of Aphrodite from the epic she had told him.

“Charm. Charisma. You have… super charisma. You’re not just beautiful and loving and perfect. Its a power.” He finally said, and as he said it his mind and body felt entirely divorced. His mind reeled, horrified that he was under a spell, while his body felt suffused in the warm light of Diana’s love. But he realized, that too was her blessing. Even as he examined his thoughts and his feelings, he felt… nothing. 

He remembered what the control of the G-Gnomes had felt like. The implanted suggestions of obedience to Cadmus that Dubbilex and Gizmo had effortlessly severed, since they had been the ones to build them. This felt nothing like that; it was more like being immersed in the coolness of the ocean’s water, buoyed by its currents. It was like gravity; a mutual attraction of objects in space, but Diana’s was massive.

“Yes.” She said sadly. “It is not mind, emotional or bodily control. Sages, sorcerers and scientists have confirmed this. I have no command over it. It simply is. In practical terms, it means that it is very easy to fall in love with me.”

Connor’s heart plummeted through his guts and hit the ground, and kept digging.

This is how she lets me down easy…

“Its not that.” He said quickly, and she raised an eyebrow. He blushed fiercely, averting his gaze, before continuing. “Its not only that. Diana… I used to read about Wonder Woman. My Wonder Woman, I guess. She always seemed like the most amazing person. She was so beautiful, compassionate, brave, wise… I could go on. She seemed perfect.” 

He could see her perfect brows knit in consternation, so he plowed ahead.

“But I never met her. She was just a… character to me. Someone I read about in books or saw on TV. She wasn’t real to me.” He said, a small confession of the truth. “But you?”

“You are the most wonderful person I’ve ever met.” He said, choked with emotion. “Everything about you is amazing. You dazzle me constantly. When you reached out to me to mentor me, I didn’t think someone like you would want to waste time on me. But you’ve been amazing. You saw… how I don’t have anyone else, and you volunteered yourself to be my support. We’d only just met and you wanted to be there for me. You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met.”

“That’s why I love you. I don’t know what your super charisma is doing, its probably helping it along. But I can swear on the Lasso if you want. I would love you anyway. And yeah, its really scary for me to say that out loud and so fast. Especially with you telling me about Aphrodite’s blessing. It doesn’t matter to me, because I would still be in love with you anyway.” Connor said, and managed to get it all out without his voice quaking, but that didn’t keep his heart from racing wildly.

Diana’s eyebrows rose, and her eyes grew wet. Then she stood up and pulled him to her and hugged him, wrapping mighty arms around his head and laying his head against her breast. Connor breathed deeply of her scent, intoxicated with the earthy, resiny and sweet smell. Her hair cascaded over him, and he felt truly safe, for the first time in a very long time. When she stroked his hair, he choked up.

No one had done that to him, not like this. Not for years. His mom had been the last one to, before his hair was gone. They held on to each other, and a tension Connor didn’t know he had slowly released. It melted away in the safety of Diana’s arms.

Slowly she released him, but cradled his face close to hers. Their eyes met, and this time he didn’t get lost in her eyes. He held his focus on the brightness of her eyes. 

“The blessing works both ways. I am so very easy to love, Connor. And I fall in love just as easily.” She whispered to him and his heart soared. It flew among the clouds like a bird or a plane, and he felt light enough to join it. The blush now spread across his whole body and he prayed she didn’t notice. 

“But we must speak of important matters before anything else. There is a vast gulf of years between us, and the power of our relative positions.” She said, and he felt himself plummeting back to earth. “And there is the not so small matter of what of yours is poking into my thigh.” Diana finished with a mischievous grin.

There was no possibility she missed his incandescent blush.