Answering To Eternity [DISCONT.]

15 | for the greater good

Tony raised an eyebrow at her, his eyes trailing down her form, his line of thinking very similar to Steve's - and he's feeling reassured that Steve's the only super-soldier roaming New York, at least. His first assessment is that she lacks enough muscle mass to truly be powerful, and then he quickly takes that back, remembering how easily Natasha could take on men twice her size. 

Bruce glanced quickly between Diana and Tony, watching him nod to himself. 

"We're going to need to run some tests," Tony announced, scrutinising Diana carefully - from her designer clothes to her physique, as if the answer would lay with one of those things. 

Diana looked back at Bruce, her jaw ticking irritably, "Mr. Stark, I don't think that's necessary. Bruce was drunk-" 

Tony sighed, dismissing her with a wave of his hand, "Regardless, the second he started talking about you possibly being like my associate, capsickle, over there, it became our business." 

Begrudgingly, and with as little bitterness as she could muster, Diana conceded with a slow nod, but not before turning around and glaring at Bruce, a reminder of the vengeance she felt towards him - a silent promise that she would be raining hell down upon him later. 

"Now," Tony started, quickly glancing back at Steve, who was standing by the elevator, looking completely dazed, "If you could follow me back up to my lab, we can run a blood test and you can leave." 

Diana nodded again, both herself and Bruce walking slowly behind Tony towards the elevator. The sound of her black heels meeting the polished floor echoed through the near-silent lobby, as she clenched her jaw. It would have been so much easier for her to not show up, to go into hiding, to simply allow Bruce to pretend that she didn't even exist. It wasn't much of a viable option anymore, in this modern era of intensive and intrusive technology. People who had billions to spare would easily be able to find her. 

But Diana wasn't like that- she had never been like that. She needed to get rid of the rumours before they could spread and corrupt her identity, she wanted to protect herself and Bruce, no matter how foolish he had been he was still her friend - she had very few of those in the modern era, and was relentlessly protective of the ones she did have. She knew she had to confront the rumours head-on, but now, she felt the first spark of doubt - what would they find? 

Over the years, she had learnt about genetics. Diana knew she wasn't genetically like them, she was forged of clay and gifted life by Zeus; humans were not. Such a disparity would be likely to appear on one of these tests, and threaten to expose her as not like them, as something uniquely other. Under her breath, she prayed to Tyche that her fortune would be in her favour. 

She slipped into the elevator, Bruce not far behind her. Briefly, her dark eyes met Steve's blue ones as she brushed past him. 

And Diana couldn't help but offer him a comforting smile. Because as horrifically wrong as Bruce was - they were alike in some way. The both of them were separate from regular humans, unchanged despite the lengthy passage of time. He looked like a man that needed comfort, an innate aura of goodness and justice about him, with dark shadows in his eyes that indicated a man who had fought more than he should. It was like looking in a mirror. In some hallowing way, they were the same, out of the time in which they longed to exist in, and still fighting for the good of humanity despite it all.