This is how I always meant to end this story, so my apologies if it seems a bit rushed. Thank you to Daisy Jane for the beta. And if you haven't see the WW movie yet, WHY NOT? It is Diana as she should be, every inch. So go see! For Alexa's new armour, just imagine the WW Black Lantern armour (google it) and that's basically what I have in mind. Enjoy!

You still look like a movie

You still sound like a song

My God this reminds me

Of when we were young

When We Were Young - Adele

Chapter Twenty Nine - When We Were Young

This army had come out of nowhere – alien ships dropping out of the sky to fall on the most densely populated cities on Earth. Predictably, one of those cities had been Gotham. Such was the scale of the assault that Hippolyta had mobilised the Amazons to their princess's aid, and they had responded magnificently. Led by their queen herself, the battle was met such as had not been seen in millennia. They were turning the tide, but that had not been accomplished without loss. Without much sacrifice. Themyscira would be half-empty when they returned.

It had been a long time since Alexandra had faced an opponent with as much fierce, animalistic brutality in its gaze as this ogre. It was huge, at least three times her mass and twice her height. Saliva that seemed to be glowing was dripping from eight-inch tusks. Possibly venomous. Right now though, Alexa's main problem was the weapon in its hands. Some kind of laser cannon with a bayonet attached, capable of punching holes through metal and flesh alike. The blade on the end already dripped with blood, falling in scarlet droplets to the sodden ground. The blood of dozens, perhaps more, of her sisters. Four Amazons lay dead around her – a fifth, she feared was dying. And it was this fifth she defended now. Like a stubborn fool though, the woman refused to lay low while Alexa fought to defend her.

The alien wasn't truly interested in Alexa; she was just another fleshy obstacle of little or no significance. She had every intention of being as great an annoyance as possible. She pulled half a dozen batarangs from her belt and threw them in a spread, catching it in its eyes. It roared in pain, blinded, and Alexa ran for it, swept its heavy legs out, and brought her sword down. With ten inches of steel through its throat, it wasn't getting up again. Alexa yanked her sword free again and ran to Arsinoe's side. The younger woman was in the process of yanking a tourniquet tight around the stump of her left arm – with her teeth. That done, she reached for her own weapon.

"Stay down, I told you," Alexa snapped. "What do you think you're going to do if you bleed to death?"

"I won't," Arsinoe insisted. "I can still fight, Princess, I know I can!"

"Well not here. The enemy is already dead here. Come on."

Alexa wound an arm around Arsinoe's waist and pushed off from the ground, taking them both into the air. It was carnage up here too, but she'd been flying long enough to know how to dodge debris and missiles. She was heading for the field hospital she knew was set up about six miles from here. Once there, she made sure Arsinoe was cared for despite her protestations and took off again.

"Batwoman to any Metro Tower. Where am I needed?"

"We had an SOS go up from Lisbon ten minutes ago, Batwoman."

"Roger that. Prepare a site to site transport."

"Acknowledged. Initialising-"

A new voice joined the conversation, one she was intimately familiar with. "Belay that. Send Booster and Hawk."

"Roger that, Superman."

Alexa switched over to a private channel. "Kal? Where-"

"Behind you!"

She turned in mid-air, and found that it hadn't been an announcement, but a warning – an enemy ship was headed straight for her. She twisted at the last second and ripped off a laser cannon from its wing. She turned it on the ship and punched a hole in the fuselage at the same time as another laser beam sliced the nose of the ship off. Or rather, twin laser beams. In the brief lull that their destruction of the ship had created, Alexa embraced her silver-haired lover.

"Are you alright-"

"You're not hurt-"

She smiled. "I'm fine. I think we're beginning to turn the-" She turned back to face him, and her smile fell from her face. There was no smile on his face, and his eyes were darkened. "Kal, what's wrong? What's happened?"

"Alexa, I- I need you to come with me."

"Tell me. What's wrong?"

"Please."

Still with the cold feeling of absolute dread in her stomach, Alexa did as she was bid, and followed Kal at lightning speed. The flight was probably no longer than about fifteen minutes, but the silence and dread emanating from Kal meant it felt interminable to Alexa. Finally, finally, he descended, and landed. They touched down on the outskirts of Toronto, where the battle seemed to have stopped and the wounded were being treated, and the dead attended to. Terrible understanding began to dawn on Alexa.

"Kal ..."

"It's not much further."

"Kal, this is where my grandmother-"

"Alexa-"

"Just tell me!" Her voice snapped out, loud and angry and afraid. Kal flinched and met her eyes. "Tell me she's hurt," Alexa added pleadingly. "Tell me she's ... That's she's not-"

He approached her and took her in his arms, hands on first on her back and then sliding round to gently grip her biceps. "I'm sorry. She fell defending Philipus and another young Amazon. It was quick."

Shock hit her first, like a physical blow, and made her take step back. It couldn't be true. It couldn't. Hippolyta had seen the fall of Troy, the building of the pyramids and Rome - was as everlasting and eternal as the sun or the ocean, she couldn't just die. Kal took her silence and staring as his opportunity to continue moving, and took her hand. She didn't feel his grip, didn't notice her stumbling, halting walk through the ranks of the wounded. Then they weren't moving past the living, but past row upon row of white-wrapped bodies. There was a canvas tent that had been erected, and it was to that tent Kal directed them. He stopped.

"She's inside. So is Antiope. You need to be prepared, love."

Prepared? What preparation could there be for this? Nevertheless though, Alexa forced herself to lift aside the flap of the tent and enter the cool, dim interior. On a table, quite dead, lay her grandmother. Hippolyta was still in her dirty, blood-stained armour, her left hand at her side with a shield in her hand, her right crossed over her chest and clutching a sword. At the foot of the table knelt Antiope, her once-estranged sister. She stood when the princess entered, and Alexa saw she was weeping freely.

The two woman embraced, and then Alexa turned to her grandmother, to her ancient, unlined, unsmiling face. It was easy to see what had killed her; there was a huge, circular burn hole that must have destroyed her heart instantly.

"It was as she wanted," Antiope, pride as well as grief in her tone. "In battle, defending her sisters and the world. There is no finer Amazon or truer warrior."

Alexa felt numb. Even when she touched Hipployta's face, her hands, the edges of her fatal wound, she didn't feel as though it could be real. "She- She looks peaceful."

Antiope gripped her great-niece's shoulder. "She is in the Elysian Fields, and free."

Alexa nodded. She wondered if those words would later bring comfort, knowing that Hippolyta's soul resided in joy, or pain, knowing that she was sundered from her forever. Her mind just filled itself with the practicalities: there would need to be a funeral, when they returned to Themyscira; the battle still needed to be won globally; she needed to investigate and find out who and why-

"There is one more thing," Antiope said. "In the event that this happened, the queen bid me bring this with us."

She bent to where a cloth-wrapped bundle lay on the floor. Alexa hadn't noticed it before, but her eyes widened as Antiope opened it and revealed a set of armour. It was entirely black and silver, and looked to be made from the same Aegis material as the Amazons' bracers. In style it was highly reminiscent of Diana's Wonder Woman armour - in colour, it was much the same as Alexa's current Batwoman suit. At the belt and embossed on the helm was a silver bat.

"Hippolyta had this designed for you some years ago, and for you alone."

"I ... It's beautiful." The bat and the Amazon, entwined. She would not have to give up any part of her heritage. But still. There had been two deaths today: Batwoman was dead now too.

There was a buzz of noise from outside, a swell of alarm and preparation. Alexa swallowed down the dry lump in her throat. "Kal?"

Kal opened the tent flap and stepped inside, his gaze scanning her face. "Yes," he said, reading the question. "We have reports of another fleet massing around the moon."

She nodded. "Then it's time we take the fight to them."

Having no modesty in front of either of them - one her sister, the other her lover - Alexa stripped to her underwear and quickly and expertly strapped on the new armour. There would be nothing covering her face, which would be a new sensation, to say the least. Any historians who were looking at 250 year old photographs were about to have a field day.

When she was armoured, she turned and found Antiope down on one knee, her sword drawn. She then held it out, blade flat, to Alexa. "I pledge my fealty and obedience to you, my Queen."

Alexa gasped as the one practicality she'd omitted from her brilliant mind hit her. The queen of the Amazons was dead. Her living heir was now Queen. Alexa had just become a battlefield queen.

It took every ounce of resolve Kal had not to reach out to Alexa, to steady her and reassure her that it was going to be alright. He didn't. This was something she had to do herself, a new identity she had to accept on her own terms. He'd lost count of the number of conversations he and Hippolyta had had, over the decades, about how great a queen Alexa would be, about how she would lead the Amazons into the future in a way only she could. And yes, he might have a role in helping her - but only she could do this, now, this moment. As she had for her whole life, she had to stand on her own two feet.

Her eyes found his. There was a doubt, a question in them as well as dark grief. She knew what she had to do—but she also knew what doing it would mean. Three hundred and twenty seven years old, and she could still look so young. He nodded once. Alexa closed her eyes for one long second, and then opened them.

She strode towards the tent entrance and out into the daylight, her magnificence on display for all to see. Antiope trailed her, looking like she was bursting with pride. Before following, Kal paused for a moment, turning to face his departed friend. He bowed once, deeply.

"Rest in peace, Hippolyta. She'll make you so proud."

Outside, Alexa was surrounded by more of her warriors, all offering their loyalty. She touched each of their hands briefly, but turned her attention to the business at hand.

"Gather them," she said to Philipus. "Call them to me."

"Horns!"

The ten or so Amazons within hearing range of the order raised their silver horns to their lips, and the note boomed out, loud and true. Within moments, the Amazon army had flocked to the Queen's banner. Alexa waited for them all before she spoke. As the cry went up that Hippolyta had been slain, it began to rain, silver pellets flashing down to splash against the blood-soaked ground.

"Sisters! Our Queen is dead. And the gods weep for her!" she cried, raising her arms to the sky. "But we won't. Not yet. Because first, we will honour her. We will avenge her!" Cheers, throaty and loud from all the Amazons, went up across the dawn. They died down as Alexa continued. "When the sky, and the seas, and the earth are red with the blood of our fallen foes, and Hippolyta is avenged, then we will mourn. But not yet!" She raised her sword skyward. "For Hippolyta!"

Unlike the coronations of modern European monarchs, there was little in the way of a mourning period for the Amazons. They were immortal, and so would carry the loss of and love for Hippolyta throughout their immortal lives. There was no need for grieving to be done and got out quickly, but there was need for their new Queen to be crowned.

So it was that only five short days after Hipployta's funeral - attended by heads of state from all over the globe and beyond it, as well as several goddesses - Alexa woke to find it was her coronation day. As every day, she opened her eyes to Kal's sleeping face. In the light of the dawn, the shadows were long in the room, the island just beginning to stir. Unlike every other day, she spent time this morning mapping his face. He was always, of course, entirely beloved, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd just looked at him. His hair was entirely grey now, lines visible on his face, crinkles around his mouth and eyes that deepened when he smiled. He was getting older - physically, at least. He still had the same youthful spirit he always had. And she definitely couldn't complain at the amount of youthful energy he displayed. But still. Older. Older in a way Alexa never would be. Long-lived and powerful, but ... finite.

She rolled onto her back, suddenly unable to look at him anymore because of the pain that had taken up residence in her heart and the tears which had sprung to her eyes. I won't think about that, I won't, he's here, he'll be here for ages, he's Kal, he wouldn't leave me-

She closed her eyes and managed to calm herself, slipping into meditation. When she opened her eyes again, she felt much more prepared for the trials of the day ahead.

She was also being watched. She moved back onto her side again, leaning in to kiss Kal. "Good morning."

He smiled and kissed her again, running his fingers through the hair at her temple. "How are you feeling?"

"I think I'll be ok. A little daunted, but- Well, Yaya spent a lot of time preparing me for this day. As much as I hoped I'd never see it, I'm not ignorant of my duty."

Kal opened his mouth to say something else, but there was a knock at the door. Elektra opened the door, bearing a plate of water, bread and fruit. She bowed. "My Queen."

"Come in, Elektra. Is everything ready?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. All preparations have been made. The procession routes have been lined and all the temples are lit and cleansed. General Philipus will be here to escort you soon."

"Thank you."

Once Elektra had left them alone, Alexa drank from the water and managed a little of the fruit, but couldn't eat anything else. "I'm not hungry. Too nervous." She chuckled. "Nervous, at my age!"

Kal smiled, his eyes twinkling with pride. "You're ready."

"I love you."

"I love you."

Another knock at the door. Philipus. Well, ready or not, it was time.

Over the centuries that his relationship with Alexa had spanned, Kal had been privileged and honoured to witness ceremonies on Themyscira that no man before him ever had. After Hippolyta had extended an invitation for he and Alexa to come and live on Themyscira, he had been accepted as a brother by almost all of the Amazons, even encouraged to add his expertise to battle training and teaching. It had been one of the biggest shocks of his life when General Philipus had admitted she'd learned something new from him. Today was another such instance of his unique position. Whereas for Hippolyta's funeral, dignitaries from all over the world had been invited to pay their respects, today was a sacred, private event for the Amazons alone. Aside from the horses, he was the only male creature on the island.

There were several parts of the ceremony. As the last ruler of Themyscira had died, the island's protections needed renewing. Prostrations to each goddess would be required. But first, Alexa had to be cleansed. In the manner of Aphrodite's birth, this would be done in the sea. At the shore, waves lapping against her toes, Alexa undressed, bared to the skin before her people and her gods, and waded into the ocean. She went deep enough until she had to bob up and down with the waves, took a deep breath, and then disappeared under the waves. She was out of view for a long time. A few of the Amazons around him stirred uneasily when, after more than a minute had passed, she still didn't resurface. Kal kept his ears trained on her heartbeat, taking comfort from how steady and strong it remained. Another minute, and her head emerged from the waves. Taking steady strides, she waded back to the shore.

A priestess of Aphrodite waited for her, and administered a blessing, intoned in ancient Greek. She also slipped a simple white gown over Alexa's head.

Alexa's next stop was to the temple of Hestia, where she would pray in solitude. Assuming the goddess gave her her blessing, she would also be given a simple gift. In this case, a pair of plain leather sandals.

In Demeter's temple, a garland of flowers.

In Athena's temple, she was given a sword girdle and the Queen's blade and shield.

Finally, the new queen went to the queen of the gods. She spent the longest time of all inside Hera's temple; nearly an hour had gone past, the sun high in the sky and beginning to really get hot before Alexa came out. When she came out, it was wearing the crown of the queen, the gold glinting brightly in her dark hair. As one, the Amazons bowed. It was done: Alexa was irrevocably Queen.

She bowed to her people – and then, naturally, the party began.

Twelve hours later, Kal woke to find the new Queen was not in the bed they shared. The island was completely still and silent; revelling and feast-making had given way to genuine fatigue, and everyone was fast asleep. Everyone except the two of them.

He found Alexa easily enough; she was on the cliff, under the shadow of the mausoleum. Facing the only three tombs that stood there. He moved silently, and she didn't know he was fifteen feet behind her, watching her grieve. She was crying, her shoulders heaving and her breath hitching in loud sobs. Hippolyta's tomb faced her; Bruce and Diana's faced each other. Alexa knelt in the middle of them all, looking entirely alone.

But alone was the way she'd probably want it. She would never wish anyone to see her like this. Pride, fear of appearing weak—concerns that hadn't mattered to her for decades, true, but she hadn't been Queen for decades. Just as much as Alexa, Kal didn't know what to do either. Impossible as it seemed after so, so long together, was this suddenly a quiet breaking point in their relationship?

As he took one step neither forward nor away from her, Alexa stiffened, shivered violently. "Kal?"

"I'm here."

"Stay with me?"

He went to her, wrapping his arms around her when she tucked herself into his chest, and kissed her gently. "Always."

"I don't- I don't-" She pressed a hand to her mouth as if she thought about holding back the tears, but apparently decided against it. "I miss them so much! Yaya's only been gone a week and I already need her here again helping me and telling me what to do-" she snatched a shuddering breath, "- and then I thought about what Dad would say about the pointlessness of wondering if I'm ready when I have to be."

"And Diana would remind you of every gift you've been blessed with, and every other wonderful thing that makes you you," Kal replied gently.

"And who am I?" she whispered. "I know you're here, Kal, and I know you're with me no matter what, but I …"

"What?"

"I feel so alone in this."

He let loose a long sigh against her hair before he spoke, letting her draw comfort from his undeniable physical presence, as solid as he had ever been. "But you're not alone, Alexa."

"Indeed not."

Suddenly a third voice had joined the conversation. A woman Kal had never seen before stood with her hand resting on the cool white marble of Hippolyta's sarcophagus. She wore robes of golden silk, embellished with huge, bright peacock feathers. There was a jewelled diadem in her hair, and a motherly expression on her face.

Alexa gasped. "Hera!" She quickly swivelled into a kneeling position and bowed her head. "My lady."

Hera stepped down from the dais and approached. She curled her fingers under Alexa's chin and raised her face. "Did you hear me, Alexandra? You are not alone. As Kal-El has said, you have him. You have your aunt, your sisters. You have us."

"Yes, my lady. I apologise if I-"

"I did not come to scold you, Alexa. I came to give you something every Queen needs."

Kal couldn't imagine what she meant, and from the look on her face, neither could Alexa.

"An heir."

A child. They had tried to start a family together, over two hundred years ago, and tried for decades. Undergone every test and fertility treatment available. Nothing had come of it. For Kal, who had grown used to the idea that he would never be a father long before he'd met Alexa, it had been an easier pill to swallow. But Alexa, too, had put it behind her. They both had. Or at least, he thought they had. Judging from the way his heart had suddenly leaped into his throat, and the way Alexa's eyes had suddenly filled with hope, it was something that neither of them had ever stopped wanting.

"You- You would help us conceive a child?"

"Not conceive. That is not possible, as I think you know. But you are the Queen of the Amazons, child. And there is always more than one way for an Amazon to be born."

Hera gestured, and the ground before them cracked open to reveal rich, orchre clay. She smiled. "You know what to do."

Before she moved, Alexa stared very fixedly at her patron goddess. "Are you in earnest, my lady?"

"You have my word. My only condition is that you must do this together."

They did so, with trembling hands and hearts. Kal couldn't tell how long it took, or how they'd managed it, but he did know that they worked in a silence teeming with shared emotion, hope and joy above all. Eventually they held between them a facsimile of a baby.

Hera knelt too, joining them. "She will have all the blessings we may bestow. That is my promise to you." She brushed her thumb gently over unseeing eyes, placed a kiss on an inanimate mouth. With her palm over the unbeating heart, she sent a pulse of magic through the clay.

And it was suddenly no longer clay. No longer an element of the earth. Instead it was a blinking, crying, breathing human. A tiny, fragile, perfect baby girl, tufts of black hair sticking to her head and deep blue eyes wiser than her years regarding the two of them calmly.

Hera stood. "Good luck, mitera kai pateras."

She was gone. Neither one of them noticed. In Alexa's arms, the baby kicked her legs. One hand reached out to grasp Kal's finger in a firm, unyielding grasp. Once again, both of them were crying, but for an entirely opposite reason.

Laughing through her tears, Alexa tenderly transferred the baby to Kal. She felt reassuringly solid, real, there. Alexa tore her gaze from their daughter – their daughter! – long enough to ask a question she knew the answer to. "What should we call her?"

Kal felt pure joy fill him. "Well, that's easy," he managed. "She's Diana. Princess of the Amazons."

THE END