<strong><span class="bbc_u">Metropolis, The Citadel of Steel</span></strong><br/><br/>The sound that pulsed through the building was the clash of steel, but not in the literal sense. The shockwaves that both ripped at the ears and shook through the body could not have been made by any mundane metal, but by the individuals which took its name. This was not the grand hall in which business was attended to, but the hallowed ground in which the greatest heroes of the world, as they would like to claim, tested their caliber against each other. Many great encounters had taken place within its closely guarded walls, battles of such beauty that would have rivalled the tales of old, that would have put Achilles and Hector to shame. This was not one of those fights, Diana had decided early on, this was not the dance she had fought with Clark, nothing of the sort. This was a hunter baiting a beast.<br/><br/>Conner may have rivalled Clark, had he not given in to tendencies which dragged him down. The uncontrollable fury behind his eyes which chilled her, not out of personal fear, but what he might inadvertently do to damage the House, and the vast numbers of humanity beneath it. An uneducated bystander might have mistaken the fight for being even, it appeared as if Superboy had the Amazonian Demi-God on the run, ducking and dodging to avoid blows which would cleave an armoured vehicle in two, and probably Conner thought this was the case, but it was not true, she was leading him, drawing him out so she could better see what he was capable of. She was not overly impressed. The next time he over swung, aiming at earth shattering punch to her head, she ducked under it, sweeping his legs out from under him with a divinely infused kick, connecting with skin hard enough to have shattered the bone of a mortal trying the same action, but caving under her own strength. Sprawling on the floor, he had no time to react before the boot came down on his neck, Olympian power combined with momentum overpowering the defensive aura of the quasi-Kryptonian and choking him. Whether they needed air or not so regularly as humans seemed not to matter, the act of doing so still seemed just as unpleasant for the meta-beings and eventually Superboy gave up the struggle, lying prone on the sanded floor of the training ring.<br/><br/>“While I am loathe to delve into the private workings of your mind...believe me I have no intention to have that linger on my conscience, this anger of yours must be contained...harnessed, or you are nothing more than a wild dog with wasted gifts. We cannot depend on Superman any longer, each must be a weapon for the house to wield.” Diana lectured him as she walked away, removing the pieces of armour she wore in combat, leaving her in the outfit she had worn since her very first days in the Justice League. The armour was superfluous really, but it reminded her of home, of days spent training for wars that would never come.<br/><br/>“You mean...a weapon for you use.” The man, behaving like a child as his name entailed, practically spat at her, although she did not turn to reply, even if her voice did grow cold.<br/><br/>“My only desire is for the house to succeed, they are one and the same.”<br/><br/>She sensed the rage building behind her before she heard the noise, battle instinct honed over many years combined with the foresight of the divine caused her to turn, her arm lashing out, before she or Conner could even fully comprehend it. In the next second, he was lifted from the ground, an Amazonian grip holding him up by the neck.<br/><br/>“If you are to remain a member of this household, let alone a key representative, you will heed my words...and you will never attempt to strike me again out of turn.” She stood in silence for a number of moments, waiting, until it finally dawned on Superboy what he must do, with the few gasps of air she gave him.<br/>“Yes….please, forgive me.” It was strained, and even a simpleton could hazard that it wasn’t honestly meant, but it would do, his ego was in control for one more day, and if she was truly lucky, he might actually seek to train based on her words, she was doubtful however. He collapsed back onto the ground as she released him, before turning once more, climbing the small set of stairs which led up from the dusty ground of the ‘arena.’ A human attendant was waiting, one of the most trusted scions of the house, to be allowed in the presence of their private training.<br/><br/>“Matthew, if you could locate Supergirl for me, I’d like to request her council, privately.” While Diana did not view humanity as equals, she saw in them both great promise and certainly viewed them with enough respect to place them high above the other animals of the world, the least she could do was learn their names, at least those she met regularly. Despite this, she didn’t bother to speak to him further as he gave a slight bow, before moving with some haste to carry out her wishes. It would be unseemly for him to bolt away from her presence, but laziness was not tolerated, at least, among those regarded highly. The citadel of House Steel was large on a grand scale, but unlike the noble houses of humanity’s past, its occupants were not restricted to face-to-face communication, and Diana would not expect to be kept waiting long, even if it was a request rather than a direct summons.<br/><br/>The security to Diana’s private quarters was not particularly grand, facial recognition triggering a single metal door to slide away. A formality if anything, to prevent guests and visitors just breezing in. The room had housed two of the most powerful individuals on the planet, in a world filled with countless powerful individuals. If they wanted to get in they would anyway, and waiting for them would be the wrath of Krypton and Olympus. Now it was simply her abode, something she had largely engineered herself, but still, for all its luxury, it felt empty, even if the hole was one of frustration and anger. She breezed through both lounges, one for guests and the other for private use, taking only a second to regard the sigil of House El hanging in both, one a ceremonial shield, the other burnt into simple steel with the heat vision of its bearer. They would remain, she had decided, after all, they were the House of Steel. She passed through a thin layer of silk, drapes used to separate the bedchamber from the rest. In that moment she was almost home. Not the Citadel of her house, but the elysium home of the gods. While the rest may have screamed of Superman, their innermost circle was hers, decorated as befitting a goddess of the ancient world.<br/><br/>The outfit came off, put in its place on a stand, before Diana turned to face herself, the determined reflection in the floor length mirror meetings its owners gaze. A moment passed before she actually began to examine her own form. She may have been a goddess, but she had not been raised on the ambrosia that sustained her more ancient peers, her body was able to change, if not age, like humankind, although it was never something she wasn’t proud of. Her shoulders and arms were as powerful as ever, exuding strength without tipping so far over into masculinity. She had never seen fit to shy away from that appearance of strength, although had questioned whether she would feel the same had she been raised in any other community, had been inflicted with the doubts that possessed the women of human society. Her lower body was perhaps softer than it had been, hips somewhat wider and her thighs, while still denoting her strength, were not as borderline masculine as her arms, This wasn’t something she felt particularly bad about, she was still the height of attraction, a seductive, if unconventional, figure, not be taken lightly.<br/><br/>Thinking of seduction, and with a slight grin spreading across her face, she turned to her wardrobe, selecting a silk night robe, something which covered her without hiding anything but the exact details of her from. After a few moments of deliberation, she refrained from closing the robe until her waist, revealing much of the famed curves of her chest, and the toned surface of her upper body. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed that she was ready. Other women may have spent time on the details, making sure their hair sat in the right place, maybe that one curl draped over a curve or something of the sort. Diana did not, she was a child of a goddess and trusted herself to be enough, the detail was her body, her glare and the full pout of her lips. It also helped that Olympians didn’t exactly have bad hair days.<br/><br/>Just in time, she heard the door, three rooms away, slide open. She slid through the drapes, back into the living space, standring strong, but seductive, one leg parting the translucent surface of her robe, in the entrance to the most private of her chambers, the grin returning to her face at the presence of that other member of House El.<br/><br/>It was Kara Kent who walked into the inner sanctum of an actual, no kidding, goddess of the planet Earth. Not Supergirl. It was easy to spot the difference; instead of Kryptonian armor adorned with the sigil of House El, she wore Levi jeans that rested low on her tanned hips, looking worn thin with a hole at the left knee. A white bra under a white tank top covering her upperbody, a button up flannel collared shirt of soft pinks and baby blues worn over the tank top, it’s sleeves rolled up to the elbow.<br/><br/>She wore simple brown boots, looking more workman like than fashionista. The boots of a Kansas farm girl, born and bred. Her golden hair sat messy but suspended in a lazy ponytail, her blue eyes scanning both antechambers as she went through; she’d never spent much  time in “the Vault.” That’s what the human staff of the House Steel Citadel, a skyscraper that no longer resembled the Lex Towers it had once been, called the private chambers of Superman and Wonder Woman. Kara had always found the nickname quite fitting.<br/><br/>When she passed the silken threshold into the bedchamber, Kara found herself not grinning in return. If anything, the blonde country girl looked...disturbed as her eyes looked up at Diana under fluttering lashes, stopping only a few feet away.<br/><br/>“It’s done. If you don’t want to view the body, I’ll move him to Sanctuary tomorrow.” Very few people knew about Sanctuary, Supergirl’s own Fortress of Solitude that sat so far under water...only Aquaman and his people would be any threat to even run across Sanctuary, nevermind get inside.<br/><br/>Of that small group who knew, no one but Diana knew Sanctuary was more than a safe haven, that it was a fully aware and functioning Artificial Intelligence. It was Kara’s best friend, her only Kryptonian friend. “Twisted as he had gotten, he was still my cousin. I still feel like I should throw myself into the Phantom Zone--not that Sanc is likely to allow it. “Anyway,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and letting out a faint but crisp sigh, “it’s done.”<br/><br/>Diana crossed the distance between them, although refrained from actively embracing Kara, at least for the moment, this particular occasion required more tact. Instead, one hand brushed the blonde’s cheek, an opening move of stark tenderness from an Amazonian Goddess. For a brief moment, her gaze melted from the determined stare she maintained, to connect with the young Kryptonian.<br/><br/>“I knew Clark for most of my life, he was an ally and friend, this only proves to show the validity of what you had to do, he needed to be stopped, even by those connected to him.” She refrained from mentioning husband or lover, it was obvious, but not spoken out loud and it grated slightly less on the circumstances. The fact that Diana was dressed as she was almost became lost in the moment, irrelevant as the goddess sought to comfort Kara, with the words and emotions that had often been shared between them, before their physical forms had ever connected.<br/><br/>“It is done, and there is no need to dwell on it as you do, we can remember who he was, or the bond you shared, without sullying our own actions against the man he became.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Finally, Kara found herself nodding. Even smiling at the Goddess, faint as it might’ve looked on her pink lips at that moment. Looking up was suddenly easier then, as the blonde brightened in spirit and appearance for the Goddess. “Okay. I’ve gotten good at dealing with loss, if you can believe it. I just…” Her eyes danced about the room, her head moving this way and that in a flash before she shook her head, and kept her smile. “It doesn’t help being here, I think. In Fort Knox here, or Metropolis here.”<br/><br/>For a heartbeat, her big blue eyes looked down, then just as quickly up again. Almost like an adolescent gathering the courage to ask if they could borrow the car for a night. “So, remember last week in bed we talked about you maybe moving out to Malibu to spend some time away from the Citadel and the capital?”<br/><br/>It was then that Diana acted more directly, her arms snaking around the lighter build of the Kryptonian in front of her, hands sitting at the base of her lower back, the slightest amount of pressure in the embrace, a hint of power rather than the real thing. They made an interesting contrast, the sun-touched country girl next to the figure cut from an Eastern ancient world.<br/><br/>“Of course, although, I would not be able to spend whole days with you, it might not be looked down upon to simply move on...but it might seem suspicious, were the next two powerful, according to the rest, members of the house to be running off as soon as the head was gone.” She regarded Kara with a gaze that was honestly apologetic, although it came with a decent helping of lust, a promise that what time they would spend together would be more than worth it, making up for lost time. She gave her lover a slight squeeze, the minute force used seemingly imperceptible next to the strength both of them could throw around.<br/><br/>“But, permanently, I will be looking to expand the infrastructure of the house, to not be dependent on some grand citadel on an old seat of power. Maybe the first can be a spot in Malibu just for...private excursions.” The final word came with an even greater grin, a hand snaking down to squeeze the pert jeaned rear of her blonde counterpart. It felt good, to hold someone, rather than be held, power and lust flowing through her. Part of her mind was almost scared by the rush, both loving care for the Kryptonian in her arms and the echoes of her old self seemed to shirk at the idea, but it was too intoxicating to ignore.<br/><br/>“Within our realm, who is to tell us otherwise?”<br/><br/>Suddenly Kara Zor’El was sixteen again being groped by her boyfriend ‘Z’, her eyes wide as saucers, the gasp that came from her pink lips a sharp, genuine, thing that she almost went to cover her own mouth to suppress and hide--before realizing she wasn’t sixteen, she was nineteen, and Diana smelled<em>way</em>better than Z ever did.<br/><br/>Her arms had embraced the Goddess just as quickly as the gasp came, the look Kara gave Diana was raw, outraged, and maybe just a little bit lustful in return. A deep breath followed, shades of a grin matching Diana’s own when she’d walked in starting to show on the Kryptonian girl. “Fair enough. But there’s no way we’re doing this Christmas party thing here at the Citadel. Maybe your home island?”<br/><br/>It was a tease. Even if anything would’ve been better than Metropolis and the Citadel right now. Especially right now.<br/><br/>Diana laughed, not flirtily, although the sing-song tone of it could have been mistaken for such, at the suggestions. “I think the Amazons would revolt before they allowed Conner on the island...let alone the host of guests we bring along...that and I wouldn’t want them there, I only bring a...select few to Themyscira.” She spoke, winking, in a rather childishly flirty manner, before continuing. “I’m sure we can find somewhere to hold the festivities, possibly somewhere more connected to the old world than the Citadel, there are many who would appreciate such a thing.” Diana’s switch into the political mind was almost seemless, but did nothing to limit her appeal, an extension of her fast acting mind, the very same one which grinned at and squeezed Kara.<br/><br/>“But...I can decide on such matters later, come, let me help to relieve you of such stress, it does not sit well on such fair features.”<br/>