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It had been over a week since she had been transported to Loihi by Scoria and Diana had never felt so drained. The lava elemental had cleaned the inside of her body out, scraping away at the poison placed there by Doctor Poison's machinations. The villain had been dumping toxic waste into the Earth to infect her, to paralyse her powers and her Parliament.

Without her full elemental abilities, Diana had grown sicker. Now, while cured, she still felt weak, emotional and lost.

In her vulnerable state, Diana had returned to a place she felt familiar.

Safe.

Still, she could not risk another of her rogues gallery tormenting her, or attacking her. She had sought out an uninhabited island. The Greek Isle of Fleves.

The sun beat down on her and she allowed herself, for a moment, to sit and absorb the world around her. Bright, beautiful sunlight all around her and the clear water lapping at her feet…were she the woman she once was she might have felt more than outer layers of her skin slowly heating up or the slow colonisation of her craggy feet by amphipods. Instead, the things she used to enjoy only reminded her more of what she had lost.

She leant forward in the sand, her heavy knees sinking in the water logged sediment. Her gray finger poked into the silicate, carving an intricate symbol through it. Slowly, carefully and with a great deal of love she wrote her name and carved the star and double W symbol. She watched for hours, as the tide slowly came in, lapping at the edges of her former life. Her symbol. Until it washed over it completely and left nothing but smooth surface once more.

She got to her feet, leaving heavy foot prints in the golden sands. Heading into the bulk of the island, she opted to leave her previous self to the sea and to try and embrace the new Diana. Trudging deeper into the undergrowth, she saw less and less examples of mankind and more of nature. This pleased her. She felt calm for the first time in months.

Taking the opportunity to sit, she rested gently in a small clearing and watched the natural world around her. In her former life, the wilderness itself would have greeted her. She remembered flowers turning to face her instead of the sun, birds landing near or on her. Deer and gentle creatures attracted to her gentle, peaceful presence. Now, nothing travels near her.

She is too hot. Too hard. To desolate.

She is dead to the natural world.

Yet, when she looks she finds that all of nature is not against her. While the life that thrived on her love before may have left her she is not as alone as she had previously thought.

The ground beneath her hugs her figure tightly, dirt and soil bunching against her bottom and her feet. The minerals that live within the trees call out to her, singing in their own unique song. Sodium serenades her from within the cells of animals, while calcium's deep baritone fills her ears with a single, almost perfect note.

She smiled. For the first time realizing that perhaps her role in this world hadn't been removed. Perhaps such a drastic change required a drastic altering of perception. Nature, as she knew it, had left her, but in return she'd been given a new order of things to appreciate. A geological time frame of beauty to understand and comprehend.

A snuffling from the undergrowth caught Diana's attention. It was different to that of any animal she understood. Slowly she got to her feet. She lurched forward. She would no longer be caught off guard by her enemies. She wouldn't be the victim in this place, where she'd finally found some semblance of feeling and freedom.

Exploding into the brush, a small creature startled. It fell backwards and scrambled on its hands and feet trying to push away from Diana. Blue, saggy skin hung from its emaciated form. It stared at her with, bulging white eyes.

“Who are you?!” she yelled. Her fingers gripped around the creature’s ankle, pulling it upside down to her head height. It hung in the air, limp for a moment, staring into Diana's eyes filled with fear.

The creature in her grip cheeped and growled a little. Lashing out at her face, its claws scratched and broke against her stone cheekbone.

“Do not do that again,” Diana said. The creature settled down and stared at her with big, sharp eyes. Diana noticed its chest was almost transparent, filled with a purple glow.

“Do you talk?” she asked. The creature just returned her stare. “I suppose not.”

“GLEEB!” the creature stretched out its arms towards Diana and let loose a burst of purple energy. Immediately, she was shot across the length she had travelled through the undergrowth. Her body hit the beach and rolled into the surf.

“Goddess,” she said. Flakes of stone dropped from her face, replaced with red hot patches of lava blood underneath, which quickly became just hot stone. “Little..” Diana stopped herself. She paused before she reached into the dirt. She still had some stone shaping powers, and when she removed her arms the bedrock underneath the sand had formed a short sword of flint and a shining shield on her opposite arm.

Her feet pounded the sand, speeding back into the wilds before her. There were no signs of the creatures where she had last seen it, only scorched plants and a hole where she had been powered through the plant life.

She pushed through, cutting at the trees and bushes with her sword.

“Where are you?” she asked. If the creature was indeed laying in wait, then she had to be prepared for another blast. She felt more comfortable with the shield and sword.

This was not a battle she wanted, nor needed. She was still weak from her confrontation with Doctor Poison. Cracks still ached with pains, and her face still felt weak and crumbly from the creatures attack. She had no idea what the origins of such a blast were, but she believed, from her limited experience with it before, that it could have been magic.

As she sped through the woodlands, she suddenly came to a great clearing. It must have been five or six miles across, surrounded by trees to create a natural oasis of cleared land. Diana immediately slowed down, walking with purpose around the tree line. She feared there might be something within the centre of the field, a hole, or a trap from one of her enemies. Perhaps all of her enemies.

The grass was knee length for a few feet before it fell away to a short, cropped lawn as though animals had grazed it. Diana narrowed her eyes. She could see no live stock or pens. In their place, there were hundreds of mounds, perhaps a thousand. Dirt colored and rounded, these mounds jutted almost in organized patterns.

Suddenly it struck Diana, perhaps they were organized patterns. She gently placed her hand on the ground. Before she could have instantly understood not just the structure of the ground but everything touching or living within it, it was a difficult task to expand her awareness.

She pushed her mind down through her fingertips and into the dirt, allowing it to flatten itself out and form a web, a web of mineral structure and sediment that moved across the field. She managed only a few hundred meters, a range that would have been a mere blink when she was the Earth's Stone Elemental. Now, however, that push all but exhausted her. She was not what she once was, and thanks to Poison's influence, she was already a shadow of that reduced figure.

Her mind came quickly swimming back to her, the information within confirming what she had suspected. Those mounds were not simply geological features of the island. They were organic. Living.

She trod carefully, pushing through the long grass. Her sword pointed ahead of her, eyes peeping over the uneven edges of the shield. The mounds began to shake slightly in response to her footfalls. Diana stopped, staring at the nearest. The shaking stopped. She froze for a moment. She leant forward gently tapped the edge of the hill with her sword. She wanted to know, would they move? Explode? Or something else? Was it a lure for a larger animal?

The mound shook and unfurled. Small long limbs stretched out, shaking off some of the dirt. The fingers and toes where huge, the body itself very thin and very small, but with a huge head. It glowed slightly from the chest. The whole ribcage was partially transparent revealing a faint yellow glow.

“What?” It was very similar to the creature that blasted her through the undergrowth earlier. It looked up at her and cocked its head like an inquisitive child.

“Hello,” she said to it, offering a small smile. The creature stared at her and performed to Diana what might have been a smile in return. She crouched down next to him and he shuffled towards her, his arms out.

“You're much nicer than the last one,” Diana said. The creature stopped, looked behind it and screamed in her face. The screech was so loud it shattered the trailing ends of her hair, leaving fragments rolling down her shoulders. Diana fell backwards and felt the earth underneath her shift violently.

The thousands of mounds around her began to shake and open. Diana swallowed loudly and got to her feet, slowly shuffling back towards the tree line.

“So,” came a familiar voice from behind her. Diana attempted to turn around but a burst of magical energy sent her reeling forwards, throwing her off balance. Her head drove a furrow through the dirt, leaving her lodged for a moment.

“Oh, this does please me greatly! How the mighty have fallen.”

“I've been hearing that a great deal recently,” Diana said, pulling herself from the soil. The small creatures around her scuttled away, heading toward the source of the voice.

The pink haired woman gestured broadly. Her costume was modelled on Diana's old uniform: a silver body piece that moved from the tops of her thighs over her body and cupped her breasts. Her pink hair fell in waves against her back and down her shoulders. A great cloak clung to her shoulders, while pleats of silk and cashmere clung to her legs, fitting to her form, but flowing loose and long.

“Diana.”

“Circe,” Diana said. She stood up, smacking her sword against her shield.

“'I'm pleased to see we've both changed in our time away from each other,” Circe said.

“Both?” Diana asked, lifting her shield up.

Circe clicked her fingers, streams of energy trailing from the creatures below her into her body. Circe directly a single finger at Diana and her shield shattering immediately. Diana took a step back, digging her hand into the ground and heaving it up to provide a stronger shield.

“Bah! This is pathetic! I thought you were better than this, Diana! I thought you'd finally dropped your masks!! Circe yelled. The Sorceress made her way towards the former elemental. Diana hid behind the shield and thrust her hands through the rock. Her hands shot through the shield and clattered against Circe's shoulders.

“I am better than that, Circe,” Diana said. The shield reformed itself into a concave shape that shifted into hundreds of blades.

Circe chuckled. “It seems that perhaps your imagination has come to understand something other than swords and shields, Diana,” Circe said. Diana remained silent. The strain of all the stone morphing was beginning to take its toll. Beads of lava sweat rolled down her forehead, melting trails of red hot rock down her face.

“Are you still there, Diana?” Circe asked. A click of her fingers smashes the rock shield into fragments. Diana felt it battering against her body and before she's aware of it, her body skidding on the floor.

“Oh, dear. Tired?” Circe asked, walking towards Diana's prone body. Diana opened her eyes, concentrating on the ground underneath Circe. It yawned open, the sorceress falling down. The pit itself wasn't particularly deep, only ten feet. However, the walls immediately caved in. Diana didn't expect it to hold her. She was more surprised that Circe didn't immediately fly out.

It gave Diana a few precious seconds to rally her power and pull herself together. The ground exploded, raining dirt and debris over the pair.

“Oh, really? That was it? That was pathetic.” Circe charged toward Diana, a wave of her hand knocking her legs out from underneath her. Diana landed heavily, her fists smashing into the ground. Shock-waves spread out towards Circe. The magician, however, simply stepped into the air.

“Well, as enjoyable as this is, Diana...” Circe's magic reached out. It grabbed hold of Diana's arms and legs, pulling them akimbo.

“Circe...”

'No, no. Please, don't try to convince me. Let me guess, you've changed. You've seen the world for what it is and you understand now.'

Circe lifted Diana into the air. With a casual gesture, Diana was hurled across the length of the meadow. Before she hit the ground, she reached out, with the last of her power to hollow the ground underneath where she believed she would land. Diana collided just short of the ground she hollowed, where she bounced and fell straight into the hollowed ground.

“You make me sick. Still at the behest of men even though you've lost everything. Your gods have abandoned you, Diana. Your mother and your so called friends as well. Where is your precious little Batman in all this? Where is your Superman?'

Colliding with the bottom of the hole, Diana lay for a moment. Circe stopped at the top of the hole and looked down at her.

“Nowhere. Abandoned. Lost. Wonder Woman no more!”

Circe paused for a moment, staring at Diana as though she were reading something imperceptible. “Oh, this isn't really fair, is it? You're not quite yourself. I can see someone else’s hooks on you, Diana. You're being weakened. Ha. You're being picked on. Poor little Diana!'

Circe laughed to herself, pulling Diana out of the hole with mystical force.

“What’s...wrong with you?” Diana asked. Circe smiled, slamming the hero into the ground a few times.

Diana twisted and threw her arms out. A wall of earth shot up in front of Circe, with a secondary smaller podium hitting the magician in the back.

“GUH!” Circe yelled. Diana was immediately up. This was the last of her strength, she had no more. The stone woman vaulted over the wall. She planted one foot firmly against it and shot off.

Colliding with mystical shields, Diana lay punch after punch against the weakening pink barrier. It shattered, loudly and violently. The pair fell to the ground. Diana landed awkwardly, her ankle breaking under the pressure of her body. Circe landed on her front, but was quickly righted by her little creatures.

“Still a little bit of fire inside you there, Diana?” Circe asked. She grinned a malicious grin and pointed to her ankle. “I think you're suffering more than you let on.”

Circe kept her fingers focused on Diana's ankle and balled her fist. Immediately, Diana felt the pain grow as her entire leg shattered.

She screamed.

Circe got to her feet casually, adjusting her clothing. The great cloak she wore was righted over her shoulder and clasped just below her collarbone.

“Children?” she asked.

The creatures from all around began to converge on Diana, lifting her and the small fragments of her leg off the ground. Diana noticed their bodies were all similar, identical nearly, save for the color burning and glowing in their chests.

“What…?”

“Oh, my children? Homunculi. I'm surprised you didn't feel them before, Diana? They're made from earth, manure and chicken's eggs. You wouldn't believe the lengths I had to go to get those fertilized.” Circe smiled.

“I thought this had changed you, Diana.” Circe said, knelling down next to the Amazon's head. The homunculi paused. “You always lied to yourself, avoided the truth of who you are.”

“What do you know of truth, Circe?”

Circe recoiled and brushed some of her hair from her face.

“I know that when faced with as drastic a change as you, I would not have sunk into self loathing and bitterness. Where is all your vaunted compassion now, Diana?”

Diana lunged towards Circe, who simply moved away from the woman.

“Exactly. It's where you left it, along with your old life. Diana, please,” Circe gestured toward the large, white villa in the distance. “Allow me to show you compassion. The same compassion you always showed me.”

Circe touched the corner of Diana's stone features.

“I forgive you, Diana. I want you to know that.”

“Circe!” Diana yelled, as the homunculi carried her away towards Circe's home. “You don't get to forgive me, Circe!”

“Pst. Oh, I do, Diana,” Circe said. She bunched her pink hair into a tight pony tail. “I do because we've both changed. I'm sure I said that before.”

Circe shrugged, walking alongside Diana. The exhausted elemental lay on the bed of homunculi, who rolled underneath her. Their grubby hands occasionally groped the wrong part of her body.

“We've both changed. I've watched you Diana. Your masks are slowly being stripped away. You're loosing everything that defined you, and in doing so...”

Circe sighed and feigned a pained look at the ground.

“You've lost yourself. You fought for truth? Now you lie to yourself and to those you allegedly care about. You loved everything, now you hate your life. It's as though you are the polar opposite of who you used to be, Diana. Is this the true you?”

Diana went to speak, but Circe placed a finger against her lips.

“I know it is and I have a surprise for you inside. Something that will make you see the truth.”

“I've got your lasso.”

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Next: In Wonder Woman #19: Circe, the tormentor!

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