Diana ran her grey hands through her slate hair, looking at herself in the mirror. Since Prince Brion's invitation to have dinner with her, which she quickly accepted, she had moved to a room within his castle to prepare herself.
She'd not felt this nervous in a while, especially not over a man. As she stared at herself, she thought it was a combination of not only her altered appearance but also of her confidence or, rather, lack of it. She used to be a beautiful Amazonian goddess, but now she was little more than a freak; a statue carved from rock that could walk and talk and imitate all the things a woman could, without actually being one.
As she pushed her hands down her body, she transformed her usual attire into a form fitting sleek onyx dress. Her normal toga, fastening from her right shoulder and flowing down her body in a beautiful map of geological time in Earth's history, slowly melted into her form, leaving her with a form-fitting sleek, almost metallic looking clothing. She modelled it in the mirror, slowly pushing a spike of rock through her hair to allow it to stick up in a bun.
Pressing her palms against each other and sliding it down from the spike, she managed to form six almost perfectly straight bangs of hair into a slightly more Greek hairdo than she was used to wearing. She felt more beautiful than she had since this transformation, but it was a stark, distant beauty...like admiring the structure of a mountain rather than the mountain itself.
Tiny wells of magma lapped at her eyes as she blinked them down, taking a deep breath and turning away from the mirror.
“Now is not the time to be vain, Diana,” she whispered to herself.
The magnetic fields of the planet warped and strained, creating a tear much in the same way a mother’s body opened itself wider than it should to help in the expulsion of a child. The Tornado hung in the air, the tear before him, and he gingerly touched it, pushing a hand in until he felt something.
It was a head...complete with long flowing pleats of black hair. Slowly but surely it pushed itself through the gap head first, shoulders pulled in and hunched to allow her to better move through the tiny gap, which threatened to collapse at any given moment.
She let out a scream that ranged through the entire electromagnetic spectrum, first warping John's body slightly and then attacking his ears with radio waves, before moving into light and back down again into the heavy bandwidths of hard radiation.
The paintwork and small patches of metal peeled from John's face and body as he gripped the woman around the shoulders and hoisted her through. She let out another scream as John closed his eyes and pulled harder, moving his grip down to just below her breasts.
The other players in the electromagnetic birth began to falter and eventually fall from the sky, regaining their equilibrium further down, away from the influence of the elemental. Gazing up at the event before them, they decided to cut their losses and make a break for their respective homes. Now was not the time for curiosity.
As the Electromagnetic elemental was finally born, she looked up at John. The aperture before them closed itself up, the magnetic fields returning to their original position as though these last few hours of wrenching and tearing hadn't ever occurred. Even the particulates that had littered the air with magnetic residue and hard radiation had dissipated, evaporating into nothingness.
“Red Tornado?” she asked, quizzically.
“Yes?” he responded. Perhaps she would impart some great knowledge onto him, or needed guidance.
“I know your daughter,” she responded. John quirked an eyebrow, looking down at her bruised but beautiful face. It was not a face that he knew, as he quickly scanned every meta-human he'd ever met, including the JLA database backup that existed within his memory.
“You know my daughter?” he asked, repeating the question as if testing it with his vocal chords.
“Yes, she spoke of you as a good man before you passed,” she finished. John touched the sides of her face as she clung to him, fearing the great drop to the sea below them.
“Passed? As you can see, I am still plainly here,” John began, before he was cut off by her cursing under her breath.
“I'm sorry, John Smith, I did not mean to reveal that information... My name is Gabrielle Doe. I am from the future,” she said.
John nodded, there was no shock or amazement in his features. It made logical sense for this to be true; it would explain her reaction to him and to knowing his daughter. “How far in the future, might I ask?” John responded.
Gabrielle nodded, with a curt smile. “Ten thousand years into the future,”
Diana sat down in silence at the small table prepared for the pair of them. Her shiny gown clung to her figure as she tried to reign in the heat from her body. She ran a hand through her hair again and linked her fingers together in her lap. This was a formal dinner and she would act appropriately. However, she wasn't sure that she was appropriate for the situation any more. A woman made from rock, eating dinner with a King? It was unheard of.
Brion got to his feet, pulling out her chair for her. He was dressed in his kingly attire, but still with a number of personal super-heroic affects on his body. His mask sat on the corner of the chair, along with his costumes belt.
“Diana, please, sit and eat with me.” He gestured towards the covered plate before her as he sat down opposite her, removing his crown and putting it on the corner of the table.
“Your crown suits you, Brion,” Diana began.
He lifted a hand up to her, palm flat as if to symbolise stop. “Diana, we're not here for political back slapping, we're here for dinner and to talk as friends. Relax.”
Silence washed over the proceedings again and Diana looked awkwardly at the plate before her. Brion gestured towards the suited waiter to remove the covers, revealing something particularly appetising for him, a beautiful slice of meat, marinated and rubbed, with steaming vegetables and a glass of what appeared to be the silkiest wine she'd ever seen in her life.
“Please, I've had something special prepared for you.” He picked up his knife and fork and began to cut tiny pieces of meat from the larger slab on his plate.
Diana had the cover removed from her plate. Before her was a selection of different rocks from around Markovia, some decorated with limestone formations on their surfaces of different species of mosses and heathers.
“I was not sure if you ate as we did, or if you even had the capacity to digest things as we did. However, I couldn't invite you to dinner if you had to sit and watch me eat a kingly meal. It's hardly gentlemanly.”
Diana smiled and picked up a piece of rock, examining it between her fingers.
“This is very kind of you, Brion. I must confess, I haven't given it much thought myself,” she continued, placing a small piece into her mouth. She smiled, as the compounds of elements slowly broke down against her magma tongue and slid down her neck.
“Hrm. It almost makes you wonder if the other Elementals eat themselves,” Brion asked, a smile running across his face. Diana returned his smile before looking away.
“Diana...?”
“Brion, how can I...” She began before he shot her down.
“Shhh.”
“I want you to stay with me for a while, Diana.”
“What?” She was in shock. He wanted her to stay with him?
“Why? For what purpose?” she asked, her body language shifting from awkwardly relaxed to hostile, leaning forward and placing her hot palms burning into his antique dining table.
“Diana...please, this was my great-great-great grandfathers table...”
She pulled her hands up and crossed her arms.
“...and as for the purpose? The purpose is that we can learn from each other. I can offer you a place to stand, to base yourself from, Diana. You're a geological nomad at the moment, wandering from place to place with no idea where you will end up. If you stay with me, you'll have a place to return to, full of people who...well, people who care,” Brion finished, looking at his dinner as though it suddenly offended him, or rather his own actions and speech offended him.
“Brion, I do not think this is a good idea...”
“Just think about it, Diana. Please? Just think about it.”
Diana nodded, looking down at the rocks before her, knowing full well that she wouldn't even entertain the notion as it stood. She was her own woman, and she wouldn't just roll over and replace the holes in her heart with another place to stand and spread herself over.
The black, almost featureless form of Modo looked bored as she cocked the gun at Maya once more. She leant on her palm, her elbow against the surface the table. A looked of boredom ran across her face as the firearm was lowered against the gritted teeth of Maya herself.
Modo sighed as she shot Maya in the face for the final time. The gun was now empty and Maya's face was once again a mass of tissue and brain matter, slowly crawling from the floor and across her simply brown gown towards her head.
Modo licked her lips and gestured towards Maya. Kung the Assassin moved silently towards Maya, punching her in the kidneys and kicking her in the small of the back, breaking and dislodging vertebrae.
“I'm getting really pretty bored of you, Maya.” Modo got to her feet, running her long, slender oil coated fingers across Kungs face, before dropping it to her side and smiling.
“You don't talk, you don't do anything anymore, Maya. You've been replaced in this world, your little playthings are mine, although...Hrm. Hold on.” She placed her forefingers to her ear and walked towards another small table, a blue-tooth headset and a small book before her. She flipped through a few pages and placed her thin index finger against the page.
“I see we're still missing a few, and a new variable has moved into the decks. Well, well, well, Maya. It appears you do have a few tricks of your own, don't you? Not quite the old bag I thought you were.” Modo grinned and punched Maya in the back of the head until she stopped trying to raise it, forcing her to stare at the ground.
“That little Wind bastard and his little whore offspring are going to come and play with you, Maya, and after that, I'll destroy and crush every one of your stupid little elemental play things. Honestly, limiting yourself to the ‘naturally’ occuring elements is ridiculous. Why limit what is essentially a limitless play ground?” Modo twirled in place, opening her arms up.
Maya looked up at Modo, her eyes weeping blood from the vicious beating she had just received.
“Limits are there for a reason, Modo. You just cannot understand their meaning.”
Modo's expression snapped from elation to anger, as she grabbed Maya's hair and rammed her face into the floor, blood splashing on its flat and decadent marble surface. “I think it's you who doesn't understand, Maya! Your days are numbered! I'm going to murder you, take over and make this world mine!” Modo spat, pulling some strands of Maya's black hair from her head.
The Spirit of the Planet looked up at Modo and simply smiled with blood stained teeth. “And that's why you will loose, Modo. You're so much a part of this modern age that you have the same lack of foresight as they do.”
“Who do?” Modo asked, stamping her foot on the ground. “WHO DO?!”
Maya said nothing as she was barraged with the next bout of torture, fists and feet pummelled her, breaking her bones and tissue, ending as Modo drove a knife into her back. Maya said nothing as she felt the pain melt away into the far worse feeling of healing.
She knew that Modo was too similar to humans to ever set herself apart from them – and that was why she would fail. She was too involved with their culture and their memes; she wasn't part of the nature of the planet, she was part of the rapidly changing culture of the planet. In another hundred years, maybe less, she would be replaced, and then her replacement replaced, and so on.
Maya smiled to herself before Modo punched her teeth from her face and tore her jaw off with her bare hands, rage gripping her black form.
On the barren beaches of Markovia's only lake, currently topped with a thin coating of ice, Brion and Diana sat watching the gentle plumes of water lapping at the shore a few feet in front of them and around them, the ice coating melting from Diana's ambient heat.
Diana sighed, running both of her hands over her temples and into her hair. She turned her attention to Brion, who offered her a warm smile. “I am worried, Brion,” she began. He placed a hand on the small of her back, and gently rubbed his thumb in circles against her spine. She felt his warmth and his touch, mostly in no small part to his powers over earth.
“Why are you worried, Diana?” Brion asked, looking across to her, a ball of clay and mud floating a few inches from his hand. He was feeling the elements of his country, elements that were being rapidly depleted by the mining of Osira.
“I cannot feel my brothers and sisters,” she replied, and was met with a puzzled look from Geo-Force.
“Your ‘brothers’?” he asked, causing Diana’s features to break into a small smile.
“The elemental's I share my powers with, like Red Tornado and Swamp Thing. I cannot feel them, as though they are no longer...out there. I have tried to get in contact with them but I find it increasingly difficult to gain any response.”
She looked at him and he leaned forwards, kissing her gently on the lips. “You worry too much. Perhaps they are all with their better halves,” he said, putting the ball of mud down into its element.
Diana said nothing, and touched her lips gently. “Brion, I don't understand. Forgive me, but I am not the woman I once was,” Diana said, looking into her friend's eyes.
“I can see that with my own eyes,” Brion said with a grin. Diana's face flushed with the glow from her Magma core before settling again. “Diana, when you were...and forgive the lack of tact here...when you were normal, you were wonderful. You were a Wonder Woman indeed, but now you're something so much more unique and perfect,”
“But I am hideous. I am made from Rock, and...”
“Diana, we're all made from rock and elements. When you were Wonder Woman, you were another Amazon who could fly. You were a female and slightly more intimidating Superman. Now you're something so different and so much better. You've redefined yourself, for whatever the reason.” Brion leaned closer to her, taking his hands and pulling her in.
Diana didn't resist. Perhaps there were some perks to being an elemental besides her power, perhaps she could finally find someone special to share her time with, someone she could learn to care for the way she had cared for the Amazons.
She shook her head and looked away.
“I do not want you to become my new protective charge, Brion. I don't want you to take over from where the Amazon's left off. I don't want you to become my new charge.” She focused her attention on the ground in front of her, as he steered her face towards his. A smile crept across his mouth.
“Diana, I will most certainly not be taking the place of your Amazons. I am King of Markovia, I will not be reduced to just ‘another’ charge.” Brion acted angry, before his features split into a smile. “I think we have more to worry about with what’s in your heart and your mind than we do with what's in your past, Diana,” Brion continued, pointing to her chest.
“You're divided. You're split from your past and you've yet to find your balance. Everything within you calls towards that safety net you used to cling to, but it's gone now. You're having to walk the path that you're paving yourself and, frankly, if I am to continue with this metaphor, I feel I should learn more about creating paths.” Brion smiled and stroked her hand.
Diana shook her head, a faint smile spreading over her lips. “Brion, you're not listening...”
“No, it's more you who are not listening, Diana. I want to get to know you better. I want to care for you and I want you to stay with me until you find your feet more. We have fought together many times and I have admired you from a distance, but today...today I have never seen a woman more beautiful and I have never seen anyone more interesting in my entire life.”
Diana smiled and looked up at him as he cupped her chin. She closed her eyes and leaned forwards, parting her soft slate lips to receive the kiss from Brion. They kissed for hours, watching the sun set drop into the frozen lake of the Markovian countryside. For many more hours they lay and watched the environment, both appreciating the same things; the shifting the planet, the movement of the rocks and earth beneath them as they rolled on the beach in each other arms.
Diana hadn't felt such passion as this in her entire life. She'd never seen beneath Brion's surface into his core, a core that burned as hot as her and perhaps had burned for longer than hers had ever been ignited. She felt something powerful and ancient beating within his chest, something that called to her from his heart to her heart and from his power to hers.
Perhaps he could move the Earth for her, but she would rather that he just moved her.
As the sun peaked over the lake, bathing everything around them in Red and Orange hues, she looked up at his tired eyes and stroked his face, her dress slowly melting away back into her original rock toga as she rested her head on his shoulder and smiled.
“I will accept your option, Brion. I will base myself from Markovia for the moment. How better to learn of my powers than under the watchful eye of someone who cares about how I use them?” Her black coal tongue ran across her lips and the back of her teeth with mischief as she finished the last part of her sentence, and Brion smiled.
“So you do have a sense of humour to match your sense of honor,” Brion commented, taking her hand in his. “You're softer than I imagined a warrior princess would be.”
“Everyone has feelings, Brion. Sometimes it just takes something like this to bring them to the surface. I won't be making you dinner and bringing you your paper, however. I am still the woman I used to be.”
“I'm sure you are. Until then, however, what say we enjoy the sunrise?”
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The End...
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