Legends of New
G. L. Dartt
Diana looked around the interior of the private plane, marveling at her surroundings. Only that morning she had been standing on the sacred soil of Themyscira, bidding farewell to her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and all her Amazon sisters before Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Trevor buckled her into the Apache Longbow helicopter. Stevie had landed on the island five days earlier, upending the Amazon culture that had remained hidden from the world of man for over three thousand years, protected behind a barrier created by Zeus, king of the Olympians. After much debate and turmoil, it was decided that Stevie would be allowed to return to the outside world, and Diana insisted on accompanying her, much to her mother’s dismay. As did Antiope, a general who had seen the weapons Stevie carried and realized that the ways of war as she had known them were long past. If the soldiers under her command were expected to survive any future encounters with the outside world, they needed to know exactly with what they were dealing.
Both were out of place in this world of modern technology and patriarchal societies, though Diana was intent on fully embracing it while Antiope wanted to keep it at sword’s length as much as possible. They hadn’t stayed in Athens long. Stevie was a member of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, an organization that dealt with what was known as ‘enhanced’ beings or 'meta-humans'. Apparently, Diana was a meta, and they had invited her and her aunt to accompany them to their nation on the other side of the world, called the United States of America. A most grandiose name and apparently, one of many nations that had risen to dominance in the world of man while the Amazons remained out of touch and apparently, out of time. According to Stevie, the island nation of Themyscira was not just out of sight, it was out of phase with the rest of the world, and time moved slower there.
“May I offer you a drink, Your Majesty?”
Diana smiled at the young man who was leaning next to her. He was young, with wavy dark hair and deep blue eyes. She still marveled at the mere presence of men, alien beings to her after growing up on an island of only women, but the longer she was around them, the less strange they seemed. Like less graceful women with thicker and hairier bodies. The other men on the plane, the two pilots in the cockpit and the two DEO agents seated in the rear of the plane, had not interacted directly with the Amazons, though they had all spoken to Alex, or at least, had been spoken to by her.
“Please, call me Diana,” she told him. “Who are you?”
“My name is Brad. I’ll be your host for the duration of the flight,” he said, with a smile that didn’t entirely reach his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, or was afraid of her she sensed. Diana was simply just another woman to him, albeit a guest of his employer, the DEO. He was polite, but impersonal. “Would you care for a soda? Or perhaps something stronger?”
“Nothing stronger,” Stevie said from the seats opposite Diana. She and Antiope were sitting together. Unsurprising, since Diana suspected they had formed a romantic attachment back on the island, though she wasn’t sure how far it had developed. “Try a soda, Diana. I recommend a ginger ale. It’s going to be a long flight.”
After glancing at Diana to see if she agreed, Brad retrieved a container from within his wheeled cart, a short tube colored a bright green and silver. He did something with his finger on the top, opening it with a muffled hiss, and poured the contents into a tall, slender glass. It was a golden liquid and as he handed it to her, she peered with bemusement at the bubbles rising within.
Seeing Diana’s expression, Alex Danvers, seated beside Diana, next to the window, smiled slightly. “It’s what we call carbonated,” she explained. Slender, with a serious demeanor, she was a DEO assistant director and Stevie’s superior. Dark, auburn hair fell loose to her shoulders while her eyes displayed intelligence and confidence in equal measure, much like the women Diana had grown up around. “It makes it fizzy.”
“Yeah, that explains it,” Stevie said, grinning. Both she and Alex watched closely as Diana sipped it tentatively.
“Oh,” she said, delighted. “It…tickles.”
“What is the purpose?” Antiope demanded. A stern woman, with long blonde hair she kept tamed in a braid, and cool blue eyes, she was dressed in her leathers, her blades tucked into her belt. She didn’t look comfortable as she sat in the cushioned seat, as if it were too soft for her liking. Stevie apparently noticed her uneasiness and reached over, touching her hand lightly, not lingering, merely a small reminder that she was there and that Antiope was not alone.
“No purpose,” Alex said. “Entertainment, I suppose. It makes it taste better.”
“A matter of opinion,” Stevie said. “I’m not a big fan of soda.”
“It’s wonderful,” Diana said, and took another, longer swallow, feeling it ‘fizz’ all the way down her throat. “You must try this, Antiope.”
Antiope didn’t look enthused, but she accepted the glass from Diana and took a small sip. Her eyebrows went up and she held it up to look at the bubbles. “It would make it easy to disguise the taste of a poison in this.”
Alex made a small sound, half protest, half amusement, while Stevie put her hand over her face. Diana let out her breath in exasperation. Even in these surroundings, Antiope was always looking for the tactical advantage.
“We’ll be in London by five,” Alex said, changing the subject. “We plan to layover at a hotel near the airport where we can have dinner. We’ll leave early tomorrow morning, reach Metropolis around mid-day to refuel and five hours later, we’ll be in National City. The DEO has arranged a house for you.”
“A house?” Stevie looked interested. “What happened to the apartment?”
“There’s three of you, now,” Alex reminded. “I thought you’d like to stay together, at least until everyone’s settled.”
“You’ve been very gracious,” Diana said. “Thank you.” It seemed a long time to be flying but then, she didn’t have a good comprehension of distance. She understood Stevie’s nation was on the other side of the world, but she didn’t quite grasp what that meant. “What is that in leagues?”
Alex looked at her with a blank expression, but Stevie smiled and took out her phone. Now back in her world, the wondrous ‘signal’ she had described was working once more and she could access the ‘internet’. Something she had done frequently since their arrival from Themyscira.
“Uh, it’s about seventy-five hundred miles altogether. According to Google, that’s almost twenty-two hundred leagues.”
Antiope made a small sound and Diana rocked back in her seat. Now she understood the distance. It would take more than a year to ride a horse that distance, and that was assuming they encountered no obstacles and no detours, simply riding in a straight line. But this plane could do it in a matter of two days, with only a night in between to rest. Her eyes met Antiope’s and she saw the understanding in them.
They weren’t in Themyscira anymore.
“That’s amazing.” She looked at Stevie. “May I see your phone? Now that you have that signal, can you show me how to use it?”
Stevie leaned forward, hesitating when Alex made a wounded sound, putting her hand over her mouth. “What?”
“Oh, Stevie, your parents. I…you were presumed dead.”
“Shit!” Stevie drew back the phone. “Sorry, Diana, I have to call my mom and dad.”
“Of course,” Diana said, grasping the problem instantly. She watched with interest as Stevie pressed a single point on her phone, then rose from her seat, walking toward the back of the plane as she spoke into it urgently. Diana glanced at Alex, who had a pained expression on her face. Noticing Diana’s glance, she managed a smile and changed the subject once again.
“You’ll have your own phone, Diana,” she said. “It’ll be waiting in London along with your papers.”
“Papers?”
“Identification,” Alex explained. “You can’t really go anywhere in the world without it. Of course, yours will require a little creativity.”
“How so?” Antiope looked at her with interest.
“Well, we can’t say who you really are,” Alex explained. “That would cause far more delays than it’s worth. Your new identity will be Ann Hope. And Diana will be Diana Prince. We’ll keep it as simple as possible. Passports, birth certificates, maybe driver’s licenses. We’ll have to teach you how to drive, of course.”
Antiope seemed less than enthused about this, but she didn’t say anything. Diana wasn’t entirely sure why such alterations to their identities were required, but she allowed that Stevie and Alex knew their way around this world better than she, and for now, it would be wise to follow their lead. She was really looking forward to getting her own phone.
Stevie returned to her seat, her face a little paler than normal. As she sat down, Antiope looked over at her. “Is everything all right?”
Stevie nodded. “I’m okay. It wasn’t a great call. They were happy to hear from me, of course, but it’s been difficult for them. Mom wouldn’t stop crying and Dad, well, he wouldn’t stop crying either. It wasn’t a particularly coherent conversation.”
“I’m sorry,” Diana said.
Stevie dipped her head in acknowledgement. “So, I caught the tail end of that conversation. You were telling them about the ID’s?”
“Yes, I don’t think Antiope is particularly enamored with the name you picked out.” Alex smiled.
Antiope shot a look at Stevie. “You chose that?”
Stevie held up her hands defensively. “Just trying to keep it as close as possible to your own name, but make it sound inconspicuous at the same time.”
“My real name is not inconspicuous?”
Stevie smiled. “Diana’s a fairly common name, but Antiope? Not so much.”
‘It makes a difference?” Diana was curious.
“An unusual name sparks attention,” Alex said. “Too much attention, and soon people start digging. We don’t want people to start digging, especially into Antiope. She leads directly to Themyscira.”
“Very well,” Antiope said, distastefully. “I shall be known as Ann.”
“Why two names?” Diana asked.
Stevie hesitated. “Given name and the second is a family name, passed down through paternal lines.” She shrugged. “Sorry.”
Diana absorbed that. “So, anyone who hears my name would believe my father was a Prince?”
“That his last name was Prince, yes.”
“I prefer Diana Princess.”
“I’m sure you would, but again, Princess would be an unusual last name,” Alex offered. “Although, people might just think you were named for the other Princess Diana.”
“What other Princess Diana?”
Alex let out her breath and Stevie smiled. “Yeah, it’s like that all the time. I haven’t even exposed them to popular culture yet. Can you imagine what it’ll be like when they see a television?”
Alex lifted her brows as Antiope frowned. “What is a television?”
“Too much to explain right now,” Stevie said. “I don’t want to overload you with information. Let’s just keep it simple for the time being.”
Diana thought it was not simple, and not at all sensible, but again, she was willing to trust in their judgment.
For the time being.
They arrived a little early and that was not a good thing. The hotel they were booked in was not far from the airport, but traffic was beastly, moving in fits and starts. To top it all off, it was pouring rain, making everything bleak and dreary.
Diana was peering avidly out the window, while Antiope, seated on the other side of Stevie, was hunched back in the seat, flinching perceptibly every time there was a blare of horn, or a rumble from a nearby truck.
“Why is our vehicle the only one full?” Diana asked. “If the people shared their vehicles, there would be less of them, and movement would be improved.”
“Because they’re not all going to the same place,” Alex said over her shoulder. She was in the front, next to the driver, an older man who, thankfully, seemed little interested in the two women with long cloaks.
“And because we live in a wasteful society,” Stevie added. She didn’t know why she had offered that up until she realized a strand from Diana’s lasso of Hestia had fallen across her leg. Carefully, she eased it away from her.
“Will this take much longer?” Antiope asked, through clenched teeth.
Stevie eyed her, worried. Ever since Athens, Antiope had become less and less like herself, more twitchy and unhappy. Stevie wasn’t necessarily surprised. Everything Antiope and Diana were experiencing was completely new, and there was so much of it that it was unlikely much was being processed. Diana, with the wonder of a child, was simply enchanted by it, content to let it all wash over her and only pay attention to the shiny things. Antiope was far more conscious of how unfamiliar it was and to a soldier like her, unfamiliar equaled danger. A danger she didn’t know how to identify, and didn’t know how to fight.
Stevie wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t want to crowd her any more than she already felt she was being pressed, but at the same time, she wanted to reassure her. It hurt to see the proud general so uncertain.
“Not much longer,” she told her quietly. “Just hang on.”
Antiope shot her a look, somewhat like a spooked horse, the whites visible around the cool blue irises, but she set her jaw and nodded, an abrupt acknowledgment of the advice. Stevie looked toward the front of the car and was relieved to see the traffic start to move.
Several tense minutes later, they were pulling up to the front of the hotel, a five-star establishment for the business traveler. Stevie was impressed. First class all the way from the private plane to luxurious accommodations. It had to be solely for her companions. As a DEO agent transferring from Crete to California, she had warranted only coach tickets on commercial airlines, and was required to get her own hotel if she chose not to stick around the airport during layovers.
As they got out of the car, Diana looked up at the building, head tilted back all the way, eyes wide with astonishment. “This is an inn?”
“It’s a hotel,” Alex explained. “Since we’re only here for the night, we booked a suite. Each room has two beds, one for you and your aunt, one for me and Stevie.”
Stevie had convinced Diana and Antiope to leave their weapons on the plane, locked in a security case with the DEO agent’s guns. With their cloaks concealing their armor, no one looked twice at the four women as they crossed the lobby. Stevie kept an eye on the Amazons while Alex checked in, having to snag Diana once when she spotted a baby and started for it with wide happy eyes, pulling her back to where she and Antiope were standing.
In the elevator, Stevie’s hand brushed against Antiope’s and she was pleased when she didn’t pull it away. Indeed, when the lift began its ascent, she reached over and gripped Stevie’s fingers tightly. Quick action from Alex was needed to prevent Diana from pressing all the buttons because she like the electric blue glow they displayed when activated.
“Like the healing pools,” she exclaimed.
In the suite, Stevie led Antiope directly to one of the rooms and closed the door firmly behind her. “Do you need anything?” Stevie asked quietly.
Antiope didn’t look at her, pacing about the room as if she were a lion fresh off the veld, captured and imprisoned in a very small cage. “This was a mistake,” she said. Her voice was rough, angry, but there was the slightest quiver beneath it, and her brow was knitted.
Stevie reached out, touching her lightly on the arm, bringing her restless pacing to a stop, though she still didn’t look at Stevie. “Antiope, I know there is a lot to take in,” she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. “I can only imagine how overwhelming it is for you. But you’re not alone.” She paused, searching for the right words to ease her anxiety. “I know you must have been dropped behind enemy lines before, that you have performed reconnaissance in unfamiliar territory. Look at this as the same kind of mission. You’re here to determine the military might of an unknown force. Once you’ve gathered enough intel to satisfy the parameters of your operation, we’ll find a way to get you home. You’re not here forever, just for as long as it takes.”
Antiope nodded, the sinews in her neck flexing as she swallowed. But she seemed to calm at Stevie’s words, perhaps because they had been shaded in military terms. “Yes, that is the mission.”
“You can handle this,” Stevie added. “You’re the fiercest warrior in the history of the Amazons. What’s a little traffic?”
Antiope nodded again, her breath coming easier. “You’re right,” she said in a gravelly tone. “I’m allowing my emotions to get the better of me.”
Stevie patted her lightly on the shoulder. “It’s understandable. I was jittery when I first landed on Themyscira.”
Antiope let out a snort. “Because you had an army ride up on you.”
“Well, that, too.” Stevie smiled. “Mostly it was because this really sexy woman threw me on the back of her horse and made me put my arms around her.” To Stevie’s relief, Antiope’s shoulders had lowered from her neck, no longer hunched as if expecting a blow. “May I hug you?”
Antiope lifted her head at that, offering a sideways glance and the tiniest hint of relaxation in her face was almost as good as a smile. “You may.”
Stevie gathered her up in her arms and held her close, nuzzling her ear. “I know you must go back,” she said softly. “But when the time comes, you should know, I’ll really miss you.”
Antiope hugged her back, apparently allowing herself to enjoy this moment of sanctuary. “Then we must honor the time we have.” She drew back a little, just enough so that she could kiss Stevie.
Stevie surrendered to the kiss, leaning into Antiope’s firm body. It still surprised her that she was so attracted to the immortal warrior. In a way, Antiope wasn’t her type at all, but there was something about her, an aura of such supreme confidence and competence that Stevie had been drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
But Antiope was less confident in Stevie’s world, less assured of her skill and ability to take care of herself. And they had known each other such a short time, and were from such different backgrounds, looking on the world in such different ways. At the best of times, it would take a lot to make a relationship between them succeed. But then, Stevie thought wistfully, this was not going to be a long-term relationship. There was a clear and defined expiration date that neither could deny.
“At least, I didn’t suddenly wither away to dust.”
Reminded of a fear she had shared with Antiope back on Themyscira, about Antiope’s many millennia catching up to her in an instant upon leaving the island, Stevie let out her breath in a whoosh. “That’s my girl. Look at the bright side.”
She kissed Antiope again, slow and lazy, taking the time to do it right. There was a knock on the door, but before either Stevie or Antiope could react, it flew open and Diana walked in with an armful of parcels, Alex behind her with yet more bags. Diana flicked an uninterested glance at the women embracing and walked on by to one of the beds where she deposited her parcels. Alex stopped dead and stared at them both, eyebrows raised in consternation.
By that time, Stevie had pulled back from the kiss, but not the embrace. She couldn’t. Antiope’s arms were like steel around her, not about to let her go, which either meant she was surprised, or making a point. Stevie suspected the latter, especially when Antiope regarded Alex with what might be considered a challenging expression.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but the clothing I ordered arrived,” Alex said after a pause.
“Clothing?” Antiope had regained her poise. “I already have clothing.”
“Not for dining out.” Alex took another look at Stevie. “I have some outfits for you in our room.” She spoke in a hesitant tone, clearly unsure about the room assignations she had made.
Stevie looked at Antiope. “I didn’t want to assume.”
Antiope considered that, and then nodded. She shot a look at Alex. “Diana will stay with you.”
Diana, observing this, made a face at her aunt, but gathered certain of the parcels from the bed and left the room without comment. Alex dropped the bags on the floor and hurried after her.
“I need to go get changed,” Stevie said, but she didn’t try to escape Antiope’s arms.
“Everything is so fast here,” Antiope observed, “yet so much of it seems unimportant.”
“Well, I can’t disagree with you about that,” Stevie said with a bit of a sigh. “Maybe it’s because by the time we’re old enough to know what’s important, time has run out for us. There’s a saying, ‘life is wasted on the young’. I don’t know if that’s true. I do know that time has a way of slipping away before you know it.”
Antiope bent her head, touching her forehead with Stevie. “We are of different worlds, and different perspectives. It warms my heart to know that despite such differences, we have found our way to each other.”
“Mine, too.” Stevie prolonged the embrace a little longer, and then reluctantly slipped away. “I’ll come back. Give me a yell if you have trouble figuring out our modern clothing.”
“I managed to decipher yours,” Antiope reminded her, making Stevie smile as she crossed the living room of the suite and entered the bedroom on the other side where Diana was trying on clothes, and finding them wanting.
“How do you fight in these?” she demanded, trying a kick in a pencil skirt that ripped it right up the seam.
Alex was sitting in a chair, hand over her face, either trying not to laugh, or trying not to be sarcastic. “You don’t,” she said in a strangled tone. “We’re going to dinner, not on a raid.”
“Maybe we should order room service,” Stevie suggested.
“They still need a wardrobe they can walk around in,” Alex pointed out. “They can’t go around looking like Xena, Warrior Princess all the time.”
Diana stopped looking at herself in the mirror and looked at them, clearly intrigued. “Who is this Xena?”
“A character in a story,” Stevie explained. “I think you’d like it. Or maybe you wouldn’t. Maybe you’d find it too much like your own life.” Stevie knew there was nothing in her duffel bags but uniforms, t-shirts, jeans, underwear and shorts, so she looked through the parcels on the bed for something a little dressier that she could wear to an upscale restaurant.
“Who picked these out?”
“I have no idea,” Alex said. “Someone in acquisitions. You know how that goes.”
Stevie groaned, thinking of the last time she needed to go undercover and the outfit they had issued her. She ended up spending her own money for something decent. “Yeah, I do.” She pulled out a blue, silk sheath. “Here, Diana, wear this. Don’t rip it.”
Diana took the dress and promptly stripped away what she was wearing, leaving her gloriously naked. Alex and Stevie both looked away politely until she had pulled the dress on over her head. When they looked back, Diana was a vision, especially when she put her hair up with a quick twist of her wrist.
“You should put on underwear,” Alex recommended.
Stevie bit her lip to keep from laughing, and dug out a new pair of her preferred boy shorts from a bag in the corner, tossing them over to Diana, who slid them on under the dress.
Alex was horrified. “Those aren’t appropriate with that dress.”
“Who’s going to see?” Stevie responded. “Besides, when did you get to be such a girl?”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll be in the bathroom.”
“What did she mean, not appropriate?” Diana frowned.
“Nothing. Never let Alex dress you. She doesn’t think it’s fashion unless it’s uncomfortable. Go on out. I’ll be done in a minute.”
Stevie found a white silk shirt and a tailored suit in black that didn’t look too bad. Alex came out in a similar outfit, only her shirt was teal. They looked at each other, sighed, and went out to the living room where Diana was standing with Antiope.
The general had retained her helm and crest, but had swapped her armor for a long red, Grecian style dress that left one shoulder bare. It occurred to Stevie that Antiope likely had no underwear beneath that form fitting gown and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She had to swallow several times to generate enough saliva to talk.
“Wow. Normally, I’d tell you to lose the helm, but honestly, it looks fantastic. You’ll probably start a fashion trend.”
“A worthy goal for an Amazon general, no doubt,” Antiope said, dryly.
“Ha,” Alex said as she walked by her. “I like her. She’s funny.”
“What she is, is beautiful,” Stevie corrected.
Antiope smiled faintly, clearly pleased by the compliment and accepted the arm Stevie offered. Together, the four women exited the hotel room and went down to the restaurant where the varied looks of admiration from the patrons and staff, male and female alike, made up for the hassle of having to dress for dinner.
Stevie entered the house and dumped the last of the luggage on the floor next to the rest, letting out a long sigh. After so many hours in the air, none of them were particularly energized, but of the three, Diana still maintained her excitement in being somewhere new. She looked around in approval at what was to be their abode. It was big and bright with large windows bringing in natural light while the interior colors were soothing blues, greens, and grays. The weather in this part of California was as hot as Themyscira, but far drier so Diana appreciated the decor choice. It made her think of the sea.
Stevie went over to the sofa and slumped down on it as if she would never move again. Antiope was less obvious in her weariness, but she also took a seat in an armchair, letting out a little exhalation of relief.
“Why is it so exhausting to fly?” she asked, perplexed. “It required no physical exertion.”
“Because we’re crossing time zones, and the human body, immortal or otherwise, isn’t designed to be on one side of the world this morning, and on the other side this afternoon,” Stevie said, unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn. “Exhaustion is its way of saying it’s supposed to be night, right now. Why aren’t we asleep?”
“I enjoyed flying,” Diana said as she peered into a room full of counters, cabinets and large, shiny objects, one of which hummed quietly. “I only regret that we flew so high, all we could see were the tops of clouds and none of the world below. Your helicopter was much better.”
“I miss my Apache,” Stevie admitted in a wistful tone. “It took me two years to learn how to operate it.”
Diana peered at her companions, somewhat disappointed at their lassitude. “Shall I put away the bags?”
“I hate the young,” Stevie said, but she forced herself out of the chair.
Antiope followed and for the next few moments, they carried luggage upstairs to the second floor that hosted three bedrooms and two more bathrooms. There was a brief discussion over who would take the master with its huge bed and ensuite. Stevie showed them how to play a game called rock, paper, scissors, which Stevie promptly won two times out of three. Antiope and Diana were assigned the other two bedrooms, though Diana doubted Antiope would remain in hers at night. It did provide the general with a private space where she could store her armor, however, and the rest of the supplies the DEO had provided them.
Diana peered out her window at the backyard, pleased when she saw a rectangular pool with electric blue water. “You have healing pools?” she said to Stevie as she was passing by the door.
Stevie paused and came into the room, following Diana’s excited gaze. “No, the chemicals in there don’t heal you. They could even make you sick.”
Diana stared at her, appalled. “Why would you have such a thing?”
“To swim in,” Stevie said. “The chemicals that make it blue keep it clean. It’s standing water, no flow in or out so it’ll become stagnant and grow algae if you don’t use chemicals. It’s just that I doubt you’ve been exposed to chlorine, so it might make you ill.”
“It’s unnatural,” Diana said.
“That will be true of many, many things out here,” Stevie said, offering a weary grin. “Better get used to it or you’ll drive yourself crazy.”
There was a sound, a jangled ring that Diana recognized as belonging to Stevie’s phone. Stevie flashed her another smile, vaguely apologetic and went off to answer it. In London, just before the plane took off, Alex had given Diana and Antiope each a phone, along with a small leather booklet and two small, thin, hard rectangles emblazoned with their images that were to be used to identify them. Diana still didn’t quite know how to use her phone, though she had poked at it every spare moment she had on the flight across the Atlantic Ocean, calling Stevie and Alex several times until she was deemed a ‘telemarketer’ and told to stop. Meanwhile, Antiope had spared hers a single disdainful glance, stuffed it in her bag and, Diana suspected, hadn’t looked at it since.
There was so much to learn and so much to see that Diana didn’t even try to take it all in. She knew that would be impossible. So, she tried to focus on one thing at a time, though it still tripped her up at times, and it was often small things that were the most jarring.
Like the pool outside that she now viewed with wariness.
“Diana.” Diana felt the strong presence of her aunt move up beside her. “What are you observing?”
“A pool,” Diana said. “It’s not for healing. It’s merely a stagnant pond that must be continually cleaned with chemicals.”
Antiope regarded it with narrowed eyes. “Foolish.”
Diana looked beyond the fence at the arid hill that backed the house. “It is all foolish. This is a desert,” she said. “According to Stevie, they must pipe water in from a great distance for the people in the city.”
“Yet more people live here than in all Themyscira,” Antiope said. She shook her head. “They are arrogant. Their resources are great, but not limitless. They merely treat them as if they were.”
Diana glanced at her. Antiope, like Diana, had traded in her armor for clothes of the outside world, linen shorts, short-sleeved tunics that buttoned up the front, and sandals that did not feel like sandals. The clothing did not hamper movement, but it also felt very odd. “You look weary.”
Antiope exhaled audibly and nodded. “I am, but Stevie says I must not sleep. That we must adjust to this time zone and that the only way to do that is remain awake until night falls.” She squared her shoulders. “It matters not. It’s not the first time I’ve gone without sleep.”
“This is not for such pleasurable reasons,” Diana pointed out.
Antiope gave her one of her sideways looks, head tilted, eyes lidded. “You’re impertinent, child.”
“Not a child,” Diana reminded.
Antiope started to say something, stopped, and nodded. “No,” she agreed. “You’re not.” She paused. “Was Themyscira so confining that you hated it?”
“I don’t hate it,” Diana protested. “I never hated it. I love my home, and the longer I’m here, the more I believe I shall appreciate it, but it was also a place where everyone remembers me only as a little girl. As the only little girl. You all had the chance to prove yourselves as Amazons. I feared I would never prove myself in your eyes, no matter what I did.”
Antiope made a rueful sound, possibly agreement. “Well, we are both children here,” she said. “With the pressure to grow up quickly before we’re overwhelmed.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Antiope,” Diana admitted. “This would be much harder to handle were you not.”
“It would be impossible without you,” Antiope said, in a rare display of vulnerability. “I look at you and remind myself that if you adjust so well, I can do no less.”
“Tomorrow shall be better,” Diana said. “We’ll be allowed to don armor once more when we visit this DEO headquarters. Stevie says there will be training areas, and an armory for you to assess, and we will meet this Supergirl.”
“Yes, I am interested to see what passes as Gods in this world.”
“Not Gods, meta-humans,” Diana corrected. “I’m a meta, and I’m certainly no God.”
Antiope shot her an undecipherable look, but she said nothing and Diana suddenly felt the same feeling she had often felt on Themyscira. As if something of dire importance was known, and she was deliberately being kept in the dark. But that could not be the case here. Here, she and Antiope were equal in their ignorance. Indeed, Diana felt she was the more adept of them both, grasping concepts more quickly than Antiope, and more willing to embrace them.
A sudden musical chime interrupted Diana’s musing, and startled, she and Antiope looked at each other.
“That came from below,” Antiope said, right hand coming to rest on her hip, making Diana realize she had somehow concealed a dagger or two in her flimsy clothing.
“Pizza’s here,” Stevie called up from the bottom of the staircase.
Antiope glanced at Diana. “Pizza?”
“A type of food,” Diana explained. “Alex mentioned that it was her favorite.”
“Then let us see what that is like,” Antiope said, then added with a sigh, “Perhaps this won’t give me indigestion.”
Both women had lived exclusively on what Stevie called the ‘Mediterranean diet’ their entire lives. Trying new foods and their subsequent impact on their digestion had been one of the more difficult aspects of adapting to the outside world, especially with the meals they had been served on the plane.
Diana trusted that this ‘pizza’ would be better, especially if a woman like Alex liked it.
The next day, Stevie drove Diana and Antiope to the DEO headquarters in National City, located in an imposing skyscraper with a mirrored glass front. She parked the rental, a bright red Mustang convertible, in the underground parking lot and took a second to steady herself before getting out of the car. First day on a new job was always nerve racking.
Diana and Antiope, in full armor and carrying their weapons, looked formidable and strange in the dim illumination of the parking garage. Especially Diana in her red, blue, and gold armor, her silver gauntlets and the knee-high boots with their metal greaves. The glowing gold Lasso of Hestia was strapped to her waist while her sword and shield covered her back. Her imposing height was more evident in this space with its low ceilings. Antiope was practically plain in comparison, with dark leather with its muted silver accents, and the lack of visible weaponry, though Stevie knew she had several knives on her person, including the large survival knife she had slipped into the small of her back.
Stevie allowed herself a moment of fond remembrance of the ‘sparring match’ that had lost her possession of the blade. If begging to be allowed to orgasm after an hour of the most delicate pleasuring could be considered a loss.
Stevie was dressed in her DEO uniform, a military cut outfit in black that made her look like anything from a mall cop to a naval officer fresh off a destroyer. It made it easy to pass as an authorized figure with the addition of a proper ID, the choice of which being dependent on the circumstances.
The elevator carried them up to one of the building’s higher floors where central command was located. Stevie wasn’t entirely sure of the wisdom in moving the base from the empty stretch of desert outside the city where it had initially been situated, to this building in the heart of downtown, but she knew they probably had their reasons. She and the Amazons stepped off the elevator into an expansive office full of computers, DEO agents, and a host of screens displaying a multitude of images.
It was multi-leveled, with sweeping staircases to the upper level and massive glass doors leading to an outside balcony. It reminded Stevie somewhat of a cathedral, with flowing beams and a sense of spaciousness. On the marble floor, the DEO logo was emblazoned in dark blue. It was all very modern, and a far cry from the dusty little office on the NATO base from which Stevie had operated in Crete.
As they entered, the noise of conversation and busy people abruptly stopped as they turned to look at the new arrivals. Stevie felt a little self-conscious, but then realized she shouldn’t be when she discovered everyone was looking at the Amazons and didn’t even notice the agent escorting them. Diana and Antiope didn’t display any hint of nervousness as they strode directly to where Alex stood with another young man, slight with long dark hair and dark eyes.
“Brainy, this is Princess Diana, of Themyscira, and her aunt, General Antiope,” Alex said. “And Agent Stephanie Trevor, of course. This is Querl Dox.”
“An honor to meet you both,” Dox said, inclining his head respectfully, before turning his attention to Stevie. "I look forward to working with you Agent Trevor." He had a peculiar way of speaking, as if English wasn't his first language. And Stevie wasn't entirely sure she had caught the name correctly. It was so odd.
“Why do you appear as human?” Antiope said suddenly as she looked him over from head to toe, obviously seeing something that Stevie wasn’t. “We both know you are not.”
Stevie stared at her, and then was even more flabbergasted when the young man lifted his hand, waved it over his face and was suddenly someone else. Something else. Alien and green with blond hair. While Stevie tried to decide if she should pull her gun, run or faint, Diana regarded him with childlike wonder.
“What are you?”
“I am Coluan,” he explained. “From a planet called Colu. Brainiac Five is my proper identifier, Brainy, for short.”
“I think I need to sit down,” Stevie said faintly.
Alex looked at her with amusement. “Supergirl is on her way,” she added, as she showed them around the command center. “She’s running late.” There was an unexpected tone in her voice, a long-suffering patience that surprised Stevie with its hint of familiarity.
“Incoming,” Stevie heard someone mutter from their console. “Prepare for landing.”
“Here she is now,” Alex said, turning to the far balcony as the glass doors slid open.
Stevie caught her breath as the red streak in the sky resolved itself into an attractive, young blonde woman dressed in a formfitting outfit, blue with a stylized insignia on her chest, and high, red boots. She dropped lightly to the balcony and translated smoothly from flight to walking forward, a red cape flowing around her like something out of music video. Now that was how a proper super-hero entered a room, Stevie thought, finally realizing what the balcony was for.
“Supergirl, I’d like to introduce you to Diana and Antiope,” Alex said as Supergirl joined them.
“Wow, I’m so thrilled to meet you,” Supergirl said, sounding slightly awestruck as she shook Diana’s hand. “Alex told me all about your island, and how powerful the Amazons are. I can’t wait to work with you.”
“I look forward to it,” Diana said, her eyes alight. “I like your outfit. Especially the cape. Perhaps I should get a cape.”
“It would interfere with your weapons,” Antiope pointed out dryly from where she stood, arms across her chest, taking it all in.
“Is that a sword?” Supergirl asked, eyes wide as she peered around Diana. “May I see?”
Diana immediately offered it up, and the two proceeded to bond over it like sorority sisters over late night ice cream. That reminded Stevie that she should really introduce Diana and Antiope to ice cream. She knew Diana would like it, at least.
Feeling a little superfluous, Stevie tagged along after the group as the alien, now back to his human face, Alex and Supergirl showed them the rest of the base. Beginning with the top floor that contained a hangar of small aircraft, including a rather futuristic helicopter for carrying agents into the field, to the armory and shooting range a few floors below the command center. At Antiope’s request, she and Stevie were left there while the rest continued the tour, Diana and Supergirl chattering nonstop as they headed for the training center.
“I think they will be friends,” Antiope said, as she watched them leave. “That is good. Diana had many mentors and teachers on the island, but few friends, and none her own age.” She paused. “How powerful is she? Supergirl?”
“Powerful,” Stevie said. “Maybe the most powerful super on the planet. She beat her cousin when he was under the influence of silver kryptonite and Superman wasn’t holding back at all.”
“Diana is more powerful,” Antiope said, with absolute no doubt in her voice.
Stevie decided she shouldn’t respond to that. Instead, she lifted her arms, gesturing at the display cases of weapons lining both walls of the armory. A table for loading, cleaning and examining the weapons ran down the center of the room. At the far end, there were four booths for testing the weapons in an enclosed shooting range. It had an automated target replacement system, like that of a pin machine in a bowling alley. “See anything you like?”
Antiope flashed her a small smile. “Teach me about your guns. Show me how to use them.”
Stevie spent the next hour teaching Antiope how to shoot with different handguns. Though a part of her regretted the necessity of indoctrinating Antiope into the art of marksmanship, she enjoyed the chance to stand close to the general, to steady her arms and hands, to feel the lovely line of musculature beneath her fingertips. They had not been together since the island. In London, Antiope felt unwell after eating out in a restaurant and spent most of the evening in the bathroom before retiring to one bed while Stevie slept in the other. The previous night, she had remained in her own room. Stevie couldn’t blame her, the trip from England had been long and exhausting, but she missed holding her, missed feeling that finely tuned body press her down against the bedding and overwhelm her, leaving her weak and sated in the aftermath.
Antiope was a quick study with a gun, grasping the concept of aiming and firing with little trouble, becoming accurate within a very short period of time. “These are too easy,” she said at one point, looking at the pistol in her hand with wary respect. “They require little skill to be lethal. Not only are they incredibly dangerous, such small weapons can impart a false sense of competence. Like giving teeth and claws to a rabbit, yet the rabbit remains prey, without the proper instincts of a predator.”
“You’re right,” Stevie agreed quietly. “Any idiot can fire a gun and be really good at killing people.”
She looked around, spotting a cabinet displaying alternative weapons, including several bows. “I promised you something back on Themyscira, didn’t I?” She went over to the case and looked them over before picking one out, along with a quiver of bolts that had no arrowheads but were tipped with metal points. “This is like the bow used by Green Arrow in Star City,” Stevie explained as she brought it over to Antiope. “It collapses so it can easily be concealed while in civilian clothes, but is easy to reassemble and can be strung very quickly.”
Antiope watched as Stevie unfolded the extensions, paying close attention to how each locked in place, before the filament was slipped over each end. She regarded it doubtfully after Stevie handed it to her. “It is very flimsy.”
“Not as much as you’d think,” Stevie told her. “And it’s powerful.”
Antiope shot her a disbelieving look, but drew an arrow from the quiver and fired at the target in a swift, decisive motion. From the way her eyebrows rose, she was surprised, and pleasantly so. “You are right. Far more power than one would expect in a weapon so light.” She looked it over again, turning it every which way, and then finally weighing it with two fingers. “Such materials. Nothing to be found in nature.”
“No,” Stevie agreed, dryly. “Nothing natural about it. Nor these.” She went back to the cabinet and slid out a drawer to reveal a tray of silver and black arrow heads. “Here’s how we can jazz it up even more.”
She brought the tray over to the table and showed Antiope how to click a bolt into the arrowhead, the little LED going from red to green. Antiope watched closely, cool blue eyes keen and alert. There was none of the glazed expression that had appeared so often the past two days. When it came to weapons, however futuristic, Antiope was in her element.
“Be prepared,” Stevie warned as Antiope drew the new arrow.
Antiope hesitated, then released the arrow, flinching only slightly when it struck the target and promptly exploded, sending splinters several feet.
“How to take a good thing and make it better,” Stevie said after the noise had died away. “Or the reverse, depending on your point of view. There are heads here that emit a blast of electricity, release sleeping gas, carry a line strong enough to climb, and so on. The idea is to carry a quiver of bolts on your back, a belt of these arrowheads, and choose as the situation requires.”
“It seems elaborate.”
“It is,” Stevie said. “There’s a reason few people prefer this to a gun. But any fool can use a gun to shoot someone. This is more versatile, and can be less lethal, which fits into the DEO’s mandate to incapacitate first, and kill only as a last resort.”
“And that is a restriction I must follow?”
“If you’re associated with us, yes,” Stevie said. “Even if you weren’t, killing people is frowned upon. You’d be arrested by local law enforcement and imprisoned.”
“They’d try.”
“They’d succeed,” Stevie warned. “There’s far more of them than there is of you. Even if you are the biggest badass around.”
Antiope smiled faintly and pulled out another arrow, then choose an arrowhead after careful perusal of the labels below each barb. Stepping up to the booth, she brought down another target and promptly blew it up. The gleeful smirk on her face indicated she was enjoying herself for the first time since coming to the outside world.
Diana really liked Supergirl. She was bright and funny and filled with an enthusiasm about life that Diana had been starting to believe only belonged to her. She kept asking questions about Themyscira, comparing Diana’s answers to life here in National City, which Diana found charming. She thought Supergirl, or Kara as she requested to be called, would be a much better guide to life here than even Stevie would be.
“This is my training room,” Kara said, showing her a big room with metal punching dummies and a weight machine that had settings in the multitude of tons range. “You can work out here any time.”
Diana looked around. “This will be perfect. You don’t mind?”
“Not at all. If I’m not using it, it just sits empty.” For a second, sadness ghosted over Kara’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Diana asked. “You look unhappy.”
Kara blinked, and smiled. “Wow, you’re more perceptive than the average bear.”
“Bear? There are bears here?” Diana was delighted. “I’ve never seen one. I’ve only read about them.”
“No, I meant…” Kara lifted her hand. “Sorry. I’ll try to keep the metaphors to a minimum. I just meant that you could tell what I was feeling.”
“Can’t everyone?” On Themyscira, when one talked, people listened, and that meant listening with more than one sense. It meant watching and seeing the changes in expression and moods.
“Not really.” Kara perched on a low cement wall as Diana leaned next to her. “I was just thinking of Mon-el. He used to work out with me.”
“Mon-el?”
“He was my boyfriend a long time ago.” Kara offered a little shrug. “He’s gone.”
“He died?”
“Oh, no, he’s ... somewhere else now. It didn't work out.”
“I’m sorry,” Diana said, reaching out to put her hand on Kara’s arm, trying to comfort her. She paused. “What is it like?”
“What?”
“Being in love with a man?”
“Oh.” Kara blushed, her cheeks turning red. “That’s right. Amazons. Women only.” She paused, as if trying to find the words. “Uh, when a man and a woman really care for each other, they find…”
Diana tried not to smile. “I’m not referring to reproductive biology,” she said. “I have read all twelve volumes of Cleo’s Treatises on Bodily Pleasures.”
Supergirl’s eyebrows went up. “Twelve?” She paused. “Did you bring any of those with you?”
“I don’t think anyone here would enjoy them. They concluded that while men were essential for reproduction, when it comes to pleasure, they were unnecessary.”
“Oh, so the Amazons are all gay?”
Diana considered that. “I do not know what that means. Happy?”
Kara smiled. “No, I mean you prefer women.”
“For what?”
“Romantically. For pleasure, as you say. Wasn’t that what we were talking about?”
“Ah, I understand, Sapphic pairings. There are many, though truthfully, it is the only option other than celibacy.” Diana brought the topic back to what she wanted to know. “Is it different being in love with a man?”
“I’m not sure I can tell you,” Kara said. “I’ve only ever been in love with men. I’ve never been in love with a woman.” She paused. “But I don’t think it’s any different. Love is love.”
“I’ve never been in love,” Diana said, a bit wistfully. “I’ve never been afforded the opportunity.”
“So, there’s no one on the island…” Kara trailed off.
“I am the daughter of the queen,” Diana said, with a small sigh. “Even if that were not the case, I was the only child born on Themyscira, which influences the way they all look at me. Any woman for whom I developed an infatuation explained why it was impossible for her to return such feelings.”
“Ah, like you’re always going to be a kid forever, and never a woman,” Kara said knowingly. “Alex is the same with me. I’ll always be her little sister.”
Diana was surprised. “You and Alex are sisters?”
“Adopted. I was sent here as a child by my parents when my planet, Krypton exploded. So was my cousin. We were both adopted by human parents, but not by the same human parents.”
It was a different type of beginning for Kara than it was for her, but the sense of being different and an outsider was the same, Diana thought. This woman understood her, in a way no one else could, not even those who loved her most. She thought Kara must think the same of her because she was so open about her connection to Alex.
“So, what are your powers?” Kara asked.
“My powers?”
“What can you do?”
“Defend humanity.”
“Yeah, we all do that,” Kara said, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. “I mean, how strong are you? Can you fly? Alex says that you’re immortal.”
Diana frowned. “That Amazons are, or at least, they do not age. I don’t think I am. Otherwise I would still be a baby, would I not?”
“That makes sense. Are you invulnerable?”
“I heal very quickly. I do not fly. That must be so wonderful.”
“It is kind of cool,” Kara admitted. “Can you fire off lightning or fire or ice?”
“There is a thing that I do that I don’t understand,” Diana admitted. “It is how Stevie found us. I did it during a...” Diana hesitated, not wanting to go into the entire Trial of Ascension that she had failed so badly, “Training session with my sisters. It was an accident, but it disrupted Zeus’s barrier that protects Themyscira from the rest of the world. Stevie's helicopter was forced to land and when it was time for her to leave, I came with her, as did my aunt.”
“Did your aunt come along to chaperone you?” At Diana’s raised eyebrow, she grinned and added, “Make sure you don’t get involved with a man?”
“Oh, no,” Diana said. “Stevie showed us that the weapons we are familiar with are no match for modern armaments. Antiope came to determine the best way to defend Themyscira in the event of an invasion. She wouldn’t object to me…” She trailed off, thinking about it. “At least, I don’t think she would object to me becoming involved with a man.”
“Well, we’ll have to see what happens,” Kara said, reaching over and hugging Diana impulsively. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Thank you,” Diana said, hugging her back. “I’m pleased to be here.”
They spent the next few hours trying out the various machines in the room, discovering that Diana exceeded their limit as quickly as Kara. That surprised them both, and made them want to test themselves against something stronger.
“It’s a shame it’s so quiet,” Kara said. “I know I shouldn’t say that, but a little action would really show what you could do.”
“Stevie told me the DEO wants to test me tomorrow,” Diana said.
“They’ll give you numbers and statistics, but you won’t really know what you’re capable of until you’re out in the field.” Kara looked up at the wall and winced. Diana followed her gaze and saw a round object with numbers and three levels shaped like stylized spears, one of which was moving quickly. “Oh, boy, is that the time? I have to get back to work.”
“You work?”
“Being a superhero doesn’t pay the bills,” Kara explained as they exited the training room. “Being a reporter does.”
Diana decided that perhaps Stevie had been right. Having a device to tell time was essential in this world where people seemed to do everything according to some schedule. She wondered why time was so important to them. Was it, indeed, as Stevie indicated? That their time was limited and thus, they had to budget it very carefully? Should she learn how to budget her time?
Back in the command center, Diana watched as Supergirl sprang into the air, swooshing away with apparent ease and was truly envious. No matter how high she jumped, no matter how far, she always had to come down. To surrender to the will of gravity. What must it be like to completely defy it?
She grew even more envious when she discovered flying was a trait that other super-beings, less capable than Supergirl, enjoyed. She, Stevie and Antiope spent the afternoon being introduced to a host of meta-humans, both good and evil, via a large screen in the conference room. Like Stevie’s phone, this screen captured reality from the past and put it on display for them to view. Antiope leaned forward in her chair, watching everything closely. She seemed to have recovered from the shock of being here, and was far more like herself than she had since leaving Themyscira. Diana was glad to see it.
As each file was displayed, Alex explained what the DEO knew of each individual, what their powers were, and whether they were deemed to be on the side of good, or on the side of evil.
“Those are relative terms, of course,” Stevie said as she slouched in her chair. “People are rarely absolute. Even the most extreme version of a super remains a being of complex emotions, and something is generally guiding their actions.”
Alex cast her an exasperated glance, wrinkling her nose. “You’re the psyche major, Trevor. I don’t care why they break the law. Only that they do.”
“Because it’s not a matter of being anti-social, but why they’ve become anti-social to begin with. Is it nature, an actual psychological reason, or is it a matter of nurture, of cause and effect? Did something in their past cause them to choose this course of action?”
“Why is that important?” Antiope asked, frowning. “Do their actions not speak for them?”
“It’s never that black and white,” Stevie argued. “Besides, knowing why someone did something is helpful in determining what they might do next. That’s why it’s so important to study every aspect of an extra-normal event. There might be clues present that will give us a psychological profile.”
“I’ll leave the profiling to you,” Alex said, as she moved on to the next file which contained a grainy video of a shadowy figure swooping down on a band of colorfully dressed thieves attempting to rob a museum. There was a skirmish, the shadowy figure smashing through them with accomplished ability until there were several supine bodies and only the solitary, cloaked man left standing. Alex froze the image with the device in her hand that controlled the screen and enlarged the captured image as best as the format would allow.
“He’s a formidable warrior,” Antiope noted. Diana thought so, too. He was dressed in black and grey, a jagged cape swirling around him, his head and upper part of his face covered in a cowl of some kind. There was an emblem across his broad chest.
“Batman.” Alex swung her chair around to look at the other women seated around the conference table. “He operated out of Gotham City, before disappearing a few years ago. His powers, if any, aren’t really understood. As formidable as he is, everything he did remained in the range of a normal human, albeit bolstered by technological assistance. It’s entirely possible he’s not a meta at all. We haven’t enough data on him to make a true determination. Since then, a woman has taken over his...uh, patrol. Batwoman is her name. She's definitely human, with technological assistance.”
“He fought on the side of good?” Diana asked.
“Again, not entirely clear. If he did, his methods were extreme. Some of his opponents didn’t survive the encounter, which made his motives questionable. At the same time, each incident might be considered a matter of him defending the lives of innocents, or the property of the people. Therefore, the DEO has designated him as a ‘friendly’, though still considered a vigilante.”
“They’re all vigilantes,” Stevie reminded. “Very few operate under governmental authorization, Supergirl notwithstanding.”
“That we know of,” Alex said. “The Gotham City police seemed content to give him a pass. There are no warrants issued for his arrest. Batwoman operates the same way.” She turned back to the screen and brought up another file.
Hands folded neatly on the table surface in front of her, Diana leaned forward eagerly. So many other enhanced beings existed in this world. Regardless for which side they chose to fight, it was clear there was an entire community of her kind.
Which meant she was no longer so alone.
Back at the house, Stevie offered to make dinner, leaving the Amazons to examine the pool more closely. She watched them through the patio doors, taken aback when she saw them gingerly test the water with their hands, and then actually scoop up a little to taste it. She made an involuntary sound of disgust, and then laughed.
Apparently, they determined that it wasn’t too bad, because both promptly stripped down to nothing and jumped in for a swim. Stevie thanked the Goddess there was a high privacy fence around the back yard and that the neighbors weren’t the nosy sort. At least, she hoped they weren’t.
Before taking out the food, she went upstairs to retrieve some robes for the other women, deciding she really couldn’t eat with them remaining naked, as appealing as they both were in their birthday suits. She placed the robes on one of the lounge chairs, and then fired up the nearby barbecue, before returning to the kitchen where she retrieved a platter of marinated chicken breasts.
Diana swam over to the ladder and rose from the pool like Venus from the surf, water streaming off her sleek form. It took a real effort for Stevie to avert her eyes. “There are dishes on the counter inside,” she said, proud when her voice didn’t quiver. “Can you retrieve them?”
“Of course.” Walking past the robes on the lounger as if they didn’t exist, Diana strode imperiously through the patio doors.
Stevie exhaled and shook her head. Then she saw Antiope come out of the pool. This time she did not avert her eyes, fully appreciating the view of that lean, sinewy body, the way the muscles rippled and flexed beneath that silk soft skin. Antiope eyed her with a bit of a sardonic twist to her mouth as she picked up one of the robes, the light pink terrycloth, and pulled it on, concealing that wonderful form.
“I think there must be a nudity taboo in this society,” she said as she joined Stevie at the barbecue.
“What makes you say that?”
“You are careful not to look at Diana,” Antiope said. “Then you leer at me. In either case, you are too conscious of our being without clothes.”
“Was I leering? I’m sorry. You’re a hard body to ignore.” Stevie smiled. “No pun intended. Yes, there’s a nudity taboo, to the point that if you’re naked in public, it’s against the law and you’ll be arrested.”
“I shall keep that in mind,” Antiope said, and then added as Diana, still completely naked, came out with the plates and set three places at the picnic table, “I shall also let my niece know.”
“There’s another taboo of which you should be aware,” Stevie said, flipping the chicken breasts. “Same gender relationships? They’re in the process of being accepted, and are merely tolerated in this society to a certain degree, depending on what part of the country you’re in. It’s a lot better than it was. Marriage is even legal, now.”
“Marriage?” Diana joined them. “What’s that?”
Stevie shut her eyes. “Please cover those up.”
Diana looked at her with a perplexed expression, and then down at herself. “Have I done something wrong?”
“There is a taboo,” Antiope told her. “Clothes must be worn.”
“Even while swimming? How odd.” Diana went over and retrieved the blue robe, drawing it on over that remarkable body. Stevie let out a sigh of relief. Diana returned to where Stevie was grilling. “What is marriage?”
“You don’t have that in Themyscira?” Stevie was a little surprised. “It’s when two people go before an official, a judge, and swear to love, honor and care for each other until death do you part.”
“And do they? Love each other until death?”
“Not very often, no.”
“Then why do they do it?” Diana sounded dismissive and amused.
“Because when it does work, it’s everything,” Stevie said. “It’s having the one person you love at your side for the rest of your life. For people like me, for gays and lesbians, we’ve fought for the right to be married, for our relationships to be recognized both legally and in the eyes of society. It is not something we take lightly. Not like the straights do. They can be married in Vegas while drunk and end it a few days later, and they don’t care. Yet, they say we don’t understand the sanctity of it when we’re the only ones who really do!”
Diana sobered. “I have offended you.”
Stevie waved it off. “No, I…it’s a sore spot. Greece was one of the last to legalize gay civil unions. They won’t even call it marriage. In many parts of the world, we’re not fighting for the right to marry, we’re fighting for the basic right to exist. You can be persecuted for loving the same gender, arrested and jailed. Beat up, tortured, even killed.” She exhaled. “You need to be aware of that.”
Antiope regarded her with horror and pity. “It was accepted three thousand years ago. Understood that a certain part of the population did not love as the larger proportion did. What happened?”
“Fucking humans, mostly.” Stevie poked irritably at the chicken. “Tribalism. Religion. The need to pit ‘us’ against ‘them’ and any excuse will do. It doesn’t have to be sexual orientation. It can be the color of your skin, the way you speak, your spiritual beliefs, whatever. The major religions want to control what goes on in the bedroom, control conception itself.” She stopped and took several deep breaths. “I’m sorry.”
“There is no need to apologize,” Antiope said. “You feel strongly about this. I understand why.”
“I do, as well.” Diana was looking very contrite. “I apologize. I was arrogant and made assumptions that weren’t true. It will not happen again.”
To Stevie’s surprise, she then reached out and gathered Stevie up in a huge hug. For the first time, Stevie got a true sense of her strength as the breath escaped her lungs in a whoosh.
“Gently, Diana,” Antiope cautioned, no doubt alerted by the popping wide of Stevie’s eyes. “She’s not nearly as strong as we are.”
Stevie needed a few seconds to recover after Diana released her. “Wow,” she wheezed. She shot a look at Antiope. “You’ve been holding back with me.”
“Considerably,” Antiope admitted.
“Ha, I’m usually the tough one in the relationship. I’ll have to get used to this.” Stevie waved at the house. “Can you get the salad out of the fridge? The meat is almost ready.”
They enjoyed their meal out by the pool, enjoying the sunshine and the first chance to feel normal, as if they had finally caught up with the world since Stevie’s helicopter came down on Themyscira. Diana wanted to know more about the screens that captured images, so Stevie had to go into the history of television, how it could influence culture in positive ways, and how it could dumb down the population in others.
“You speak of weapons changing the world,” Diana said. “But I think the invention of these electronics have done more in a much shorter time. According to Antiope, there have always been terrible weapons capable of horrific things, no matter when in history you are. But this is a change of a different sort.”
“It is,” Stevie said. “Not sure where it will lead us yet. There’s plenty of speculation, but no one knows for sure.”
“Do you think there have always been enhanced beings like me in the world?” Diana asked.
“Well, if my theory about every group of gods that various cultures worshiped were enhanced, then possibly. So many of our stories are based on beings who displayed abilities far beyond our own. You and your Amazons withdrew, taking your possible impact on history with you, but perhaps the rest didn’t.” Stevie hesitated. “Maybe in your time, all stories were accepted as truth and that’s why they lasted so long. But somewhere along the line, humans began doubting, refusing to believe, calling them lies and condemning the storyteller as crazy. Did that make those stories less true? I know that the most recent century had stories of sasquatches and the Loch Ness monster and aliens. The last, at least, has turned out to be more real than even I could have imagined. Maybe the others are as well, only it’s not really monsters or aliens they’re describing, but metas who just don’t look human. Or maybe the stories are all about aliens. I don’t know. Superman and Supergirl aren’t from Earth. Neither is Brainy.”
“I am human,” Diana said. “And even if Kara and the others are from alien worlds, they’re still…” She searched for the word. “They’re still like us. They’re still people.”
“Super people,” Stevie agreed. “But sometimes, in a reality of enhanced, those of us who aren’t wonder where we fit in.”
“That has always been true,” Antiope said. “The Gods when they fought, made the rest of us fear that the very world would end. For many, it did, collateral damage in a battle they could do nothing about. When Apollo drew on the power of the sun, when Zeus called forth lightning, when Poseidon made the seas boil, there was little we could do but cower and pray they would not turn their gaze upon us.”
Diana regarded her aunt with fascination. “Why have you never spoken of this before?”
Antiope smiled. “You were far too excitable as it was,” she said, patting Diana on the arm with obvious fondness. “Hippolyta insisted we downplay such battles in our stories, lest you try to reenact them with the cattle.”
Stevie looked sideways at Diana. “The cattle?”
“I don’t wish to speak of it,” Diana said, casting a hard look at Antiope who almost laughed. Clearly, it was a childhood memory that delighted the aunt while embarrassing the niece.
Stevie smiled as she rose from her chair and began to gather up the dishes. Antiope made a move to help but Stevie waved her back. “I have this,” she said. “You two relax. I have something special for dessert.”
In the kitchen, she scooped out some vanilla ice cream from the freezer into three sundae bowls, placing them on a tray. She added three bottles of syrup, chocolate, caramel and strawberry, a can of whipped cream, a small bowl of crushed nuts and some cherries. Then she carried it out to the picnic table where she showed the Amazons how to create ice cream sundaes.
Diana’s face, after that first bite, was worth all the trouble.
“Oh, you should be so proud,” she told Stevie. “So very proud.”
“Hey, I didn’t make it,” she said. “I just bought the ingredients. You made your own sundae.” She paused. “Not sure I would have gone with all three syrups, but hey, whatever.”
“I do not believe this is nutritious,” Antiope noted after finishing her last bit and putting the bowl on the table. Her sundae had been very small, a small drizzle of chocolate over it, and some nuts sprinkled sparingly over the top.
“No, it isn’t, but sometimes you need nutrition for the soul,” Stevie told her. “Ice cream is for the soul, not the body.”
“Ah, I was unaware the soul required such sweetness.”
“Some might say you could use a little,” Diana offered slyly, sliding her a sideways glance.
Antiope looked at her niece with an expression that somewhat proved Diana’s point, and both she and Stevie smiled. Deciding that was as far as the conversation should go, Stevie finished up her sundae and took the dishes back into the kitchen. After cleaning up, she returned to the patio where Antiope was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, contemplating the night sky as Diana swam gracefully in the pool, again without clothing of any kind. Stevie stretched out on the lounger next to Antiope.
“You cannot see the stars here.” Antiope sounded sad.
“No, too much light from the city,” Stevie said. She dared to reach over and take her hand. “Missing Themyscira?”
“A little,” Antiope admitted. “But as difficult as it is for me, I know it is far worse for my sister. To be without both Diana and myself? She will be in so much pain with no one to turn to.”
Stevie squeezed her fingers lightly. “You’ll see her again. You both will.”
“I hope so,” Antiope said.
But she didn’t look entirely convinced.
“All right, Diana, are you ready?”
Diana looked over at the window where she could see Stevie, Alex, Antiope and the young man, Brainy, in the control booth. She was standing at one end of a long, narrow room, painted light blue, the walls, ceiling and floor almost blending into each other. A line of lights ran waist high along each of the longer walls. They were sensors, calibrated to determine exactly what was happening when Diana performed the same maneuver she had on Themyscira that had brought down Stevie’s helicopter.
Stevie was calling it her ‘bracelet blast’.
The room was reinforced, and they believed it would contain whatever forces were at work. Though Alex had mentioned that having this area was three stories below the parking garage, deep in an underground bunker, was a bonus.
Diana set her shoulders. “I’m ready.”
“So are we,” Stevie’s voice crackled over the speaker. “You may begin.”
Diana put one leg in front of the other as if she were lunging, bent her knees and slammed her gauntlets together.
Nothing happened.
“Was that it?” Brainy asked. "It was less than impressive."
Diana shot a glare in that direction. Now she realized how men could be irritating.
“Let me try again.” She set up again and repeated the motion with the same result. She stared at her arms, feeling betrayed by her own body. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“One step at a time,” Stevie said, her tone soothing. “Try to recreate the initial incident, Diana. Remember how you were feeling. The ability could be tied to emotion.”
Diana thought back to that day on the training field, how her Trial of Ascension had gone so wrong. The humiliation, she had felt, and anger, the resentment and even the fear of suddenly discovering she was different than the other Amazons. As she did, she felt something stir within her, a coiling deep in the pit of her stomach, a sense of an oncoming storm. She lunged forward again, bringing her wrists together in a satisfying expulsion of energy and power. The lights flickered, the room shook and at least five of the sensors blew out in a shower of sparks. Cracks radiated through the window of the control room, spreading like a spider web before the entire thing simply collapsed in a shower of glass pebbles.
Inside the room, Brainy stared at Diana, his mouth hanging open, while Alex and Stevie peered intently at the readings on a computer screen in front of him. Antiope stood back in the corner, arms crossed over her chest, an expression of dark satisfaction on her face.
“Okay, Diana, we won’t be trying that again today,” Alex said, looking up briefly. “I understand Supergirl is upstairs for a training session. She mentioned she’d like to spar with you if you’re interested.” She pointed at something on the screen as she turned her attention back to Stevie. “Can that be right?”
“I don’t know,” Stevie said, frowning. “If it is, then why didn’t we all get smashed to paste against the back wall. It’s a selective sort of shock-wave. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Diana, listening to this muttered conversation, stood there uncertainly for a moment before she shrugged and headed for the door. Her boots crunched loudly over the broken glass as she walked past the control room where Alex, Stevie and Brainy were all engrossed in their computers. She wondered what they were seeing, and hoped they would have something tangible to tell her later. In the meantime, she would enjoy speaking with Kara again.
More than she perhaps wanted to acknowledge to herself.
In the hallway outside, Antiope was just exiting the control room. “I’ll come with you,” she said. “I wish to train, as well. It’s been too long.”
Diana had hoped to spend time with Kara on her own, but she managed a smile. “You’re right, it has.” She paused. “Not since I knocked you down on your hindquarters.”
Antiope flicked a sideways glance at her, but did not respond to the provocation. Which was why Diana kept trying. It was so rewarding when she did get a rise out of her aunt.
They made their way to the training level several stories up and only got lost once, when they got off the elevator on the wrong floor. Fortunately, a nice young man gave them directions and they eventually made their destination. Kara was already in the room, kicking and punching a dummy, the bright yellow head and torso shaped in the vague outline of a person. Antiope watched this for a minute, and then immediately went over to her.
“You’re dropping your shoulder,” she said, falling easily back into the role of teacher that she had been with Diana. “Adjust your feet. Follow through.”
Kara appeared surprised, but readily made the changes Antiope suggested, striking the dummy with more force. Diana stretched as Antiope worked with Kara a few more minutes, showing her how to drive through her blows, and at which areas she should be aiming to cause the most damage. Diana could tell Kara had some training, but relied too much on her superior strength and speed and didn’t focus on maintaining the balance a true warrior required. She was sloppy. Antiope tightened up her motion in a very short period of time.
Then Antiope gestured to Diana and they began to warm up as Kara drank from a bottle of brightly colored liquid and watched with obvious fascination. Diana wasn’t sure why. They were merely engaged in simple fighting moves that loosened ligaments and warmed muscles, the prelude to the actual sparring.
“Are the swords here?” Antiope asked after she was satisfied Diana was properly prepared.
“Agent Trevor arranged to have a selection brought here.” Kara gestured to a case sitting on one side of the room, jammed up against the wall. “She didn’t specify which type, so the agents just brought everything we have, mostly property seizures from DEO raids. Not a lot of swords used in our line of work.”
Antiope nodded briefly and went over. Diana glanced at Kara. “I apologize if we interrupted your routine.”
“No, that was instructive,” Kara said, eyes bright. “Alex taught me all my moves, but it’s interesting to have another perspective. Your aunt is a good teacher.”
“She is,” Diana agreed. “She’s taught me everything I know.” She paused as she watched Antiope draw a very thin sword from its scabbard and examine closely. There was an expression on Antiope’s face, one she had never seen before.
It might have been sheer covetousness.
“Oh, that’s a samurai sword,” Kara said, following Diana’s gaze. “From Japan. It’s called a katana.”
“It’s magnificent,” Antiope said, her tone hushed and reverent. She swept it through the air experimentally. “It will require a completely different method of fighting.”
“Well, no one else is using it. You can keep it.”
Antiope looked as if Kara had just handed her the wealth of the ages. “I am honored,” she said, dipping her head.
Kara looked startled, and then slightly embarrassed. “Anytime.”
Antiope looked back at Diana. “The rest of these weapons are badly made and poorly balanced. I will use this and we’ll do our best.”
“Of course,” Diana said. That would make things interesting. An unfamiliar sword would be a disadvantage for Antiope. Drawing the God-killer from the sheath on her back, Diana took up her shield as she and Antiope moved to the open space on the floor. It felt odd to be sparring inside, but she supposed she would have to get used to it.
Kara perched on a cement half-wall and drank from her water bottle as she watched the Amazons. Diana was used to being observed while sparring, but there was a part of her that wanted to impress Kara, to make her see what she was capable of. It made her more aggressive than she normally was and she attacked Antiope right away.
Antiope was clearly pleased, a small smile on her face as she parried Diana’s blows with the odd sword, knocking them aside, dancing backward under the assault before she turned it around with a simple twist of her wrist. Then it was Diana’s turn to move back, careful to keep her balance. The odd sword Antiope was using whipped through the air so quickly and smoothly that Diana thought she could detect a hum. And it was wickedly sharp, a mere swipe near her hand sliced through the suede hand wrap and the flesh below, blood immediately welling up and dripping on the floor.
Antiope paused to look at it, as did Diana. “My apologies,” Antiope said. Sparring was not meant to draw blood, just to reaffirm one’s balance and refine one’s moves. A cut meant something had gone wrong, either in how Antiope had attacked, or in how Diana had defended. “This sword is deadlier than I anticipated. I will use another.”
“No,” Diana said stubbornly. “All battles I face in this world will be against different and unexpected foes with unfamiliar weapons. No one will fight as Amazons do.”
Antiope nodded approvingly. “Well said. Again.”
They lunged at each other once more, blades clanging, blocking and swinging, neither giving ground, the steel in Antiope’s sword strong enough to counter even the God-killer. Diana wondered about that, unsure why a man-made blade would be capable of withstanding what should be able to kill a God. Perhaps samurai swords were smelted with paranormal powers, as well.
After several minutes, both were sweating freely, breath coming hard as they fell into a natural rhythm of strike and counter-strike until finally, Antiope called it with a gesture of her hand. Diana looked over at Kara, who was staring at them with wide eyes and a slack jaw. At Diana’s glance, she closed her mouth with an obvious effort.
“Wow, remember when I said I wanted to spar with you? I think I’ve changed my mind.”
Diana frowned. “I thought you were invulnerable.”
“I thought I was, too, but after watching you fight, I’m not so sure.”
“Diana is good enough not to harm you,” Antiope said. She stood back, her new sword resting easily on her shoulder. “I would like to watch you both. Please, take the floor.”
Kara didn’t look entirely certain about that, but she nodded briefly and slid off the wall, taking up position on the floor. But before they could start, the door opened to allow the entrance of Stevie and Alex.
“What’s going on here?” Alex asked, eyebrows raised.
“Diana will test herself against Kara,” Antiope said. “It’s claimed she is the strongest of the enhanced in this world. We must know how Diana compares to that.”
Stevie and Alex exchanged a glance. Alex frowned and looked at Supergirl. “Are you okay with this?”
Kara shrugged. “I honestly don’t know who’s stronger,” she said. “I know I’m nowhere near the fighter she is, but I also don’t believe she can hurt me.” She shot an apologetic look at Diana. “The invulnerable thing, again.”
“But this is the God-killer,” Diana said, raising her sword so that the blade would catch the light. “Intended to destroy Ares, the God of War.”
“Assuming we believe the Olympians were gods and not merely enhanced,” Alex pointed out dryly. “Otherwise, it’s just a story and that’s just a sword.”
Stevie looked a little concerned, but didn’t say anything. She just frowned. Antiope also wasn’t saying anything, maintaining an inscrutable expression. Diana wasn’t sure what that meant, or what she should do. Then she realized that if she was the adult she claimed to be, then it wasn’t Antiope’s call, it was hers.
“We shall spar,” she said in a decisive tone. “I’ll be careful.”
Supergirl grinned, a bit cockily. “I’ll be careful, too. I wouldn’t want you to hurt your fists on my face.”
Piqued, Diana readied herself, sword in her right hand, shield up and ready to block. Supergirl was not the slightest bit intimidated, striking first, a solid punch to Diana’s shield that sent her sliding back a few yards, even though her feet had been set. The clang of fist striking metal nearly deafened those in the room. Stevie, Alex and even Antiope quickly retreated behind the cement half wall as Diana let out her breath in a rush. Kara was incredibly strong.
It was exhilarating.
Diana sprang forward, striking at Kara who returned her blows with interest. Careful not to strike a killing blow, a part of Diana still wondered if her sword could cut Supergirl. She was no God, after all. She dared to make a swing at Kara, which Supergirl avoided by leaping backward. Certain now that Kara could look after herself, Diana began to press the attack, battering at Supergirl with her shield and then bringing her sword over and down in an easily avoidable blow, intending for her to step sideways where Diana could trip her up with a leg sweep.
But, instead of moving out of the way of the strike, Kara caught the blade of the God-killer in her right hand and with a simple squeeze, she snapped it completely in half. Diana froze, staring at her weapon in complete consternation as Kara flushed a bright red.
“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to break it.” Supergirl couldn’t be more horrified or contrite as she held her hands out in supplication. “I just meant to grab it out of your hand.”
“This is impossible.” Dismayed, Diana looked toward Antiope, who looked regretful. “I don’t understand.”
“I think I do,” Stevie said, dryly. “That wasn’t the God-killer, Diana.”
“You are.”
“You have spent my entire life lying to me!” Diana was incensed.
Antiope was unrepentant. “I wished to tell you. Hippolyta did not agree. She was afraid that the more you knew, the more you would pursue your destiny. And the stronger you became, the sooner he would find you.”
“Find me? Why should I believe that Ares even exists?” Diana shouted. “Why should I believe anything you say!”
Stevie put her hand over her face. Domestic disputes were the worst and nobody fought like family. Alex and Kara had prudently withdrawn as soon as Diana had turned on her aunt. Stevie wasn’t sure why she hadn’t done the same but a part of her felt responsible for this situation. If she hadn’t crashed on Themyscira, perhaps neither Amazon would be in the position she was in now.
“He exists,” Antiope said with absolute certainty. “He’s out here. I feel it in my very bones. And it’s best that you know the truth before you face him.”
“Then why not simply tell me?”
“It was better this way,” Antiope said. “I needed to know how you’d react when a truly unexpected blow was struck in battle.” She paused, jaw moving as if she was tasting something unpleasant. “You stopped fighting. Again. Just as you did during your trial when you disarmed me. That is unacceptable.”
“Unacceptable?” Diana repeated, clearly appalled. “This is unacceptable. How can I ever trust you again?”
Stevie winced. Antiope frowned, eyes narrowing. “Keeping the truth from you until you reached the age of ascension is not the same as lying.”
Stevie, about to say a lie of omission was still a lie, decided discretion was the better part of valor and kept her mouth shut.
Diana slammed her shield against the wall, making a perceptible dent in the concrete. “Then tell me the truth!” she snarled. “What am I?”
“You were created at Zeus’s behest, a child of his power and strength, bestowed upon you with his dying breath,” Antiope said. “Just as the story claimed.”
“A weapon strong enough to kill a god,” Diana said bitterly. “Me.”
“Yes, but also a child of Hippolyta, who loves you, and fears for your safety.”
“That’s why you trained me even when Mother forbid it!” Diana looked at her aunt with fury evident in her face, but also with tears in her eyes, indicating how hurt she was. “Not because you believed in me, but because General Antiope would never leave a weapon untended.”
That struck home, Stevie saw, leaving Antiope shaken and vulnerable.
“No, Diana,” Antiope said, reaching out a hand, “It wasn’t like that.”
“I don’t believe you,” Diana said with deliberation, and stalked from the room, shoulders back, fury radiating from every inch of her imposing height.
Antiope made a move to go after her, forestalled by Stevie touching her on the arm. “Maybe you should give her a minute,” Stevie advised gently. “Her whole world’s just been turned upside down.”
Antiope released her breath, no longer looking immortally wise. “I did not handle this properly.”
“I don’t think there was a proper way to handle it,” Stevie told her sympathetically. “Once it was decided to raise her in ignorance of her true purpose, it was always going to be a shock when she found out, regardless of how it happened.”
“Hippolyta wanted her to be a child,” Antiope said, sadly. “To only be her child.”
“Is she?”
“Is she what?”
“Hippolyta’s child, not made of clay, but actually born of Amazon and what…Zeus? From what I remember, he did like to spread his seed around. Heracles was his son, a demi-god. Is Diana his daughter? Is she also a demi-god?” Stevie made a sound, a sort of ‘oh’ as she realized what that meant. “Is Ares her brother?” Antiope looked at her, clearly not wanting to answer that. Stevie let out her breath. “Oh, dear.”
Antiope stared at the floor, shoulders slumped. “She thinks I do not love her. That I look at her only as a weapon to be wielded.”
“She doesn’t think that,” Stevie consoled her. “Despite what she said. She’s just hurt and angry. Once she cools off a little, she’ll remember how you are when you’re not wearing the armor.”
“I always wear the armor,” Antiope said, dejectedly.
“If that were the case, she wouldn’t tease you the way she does,” Stevie said. “She would only see you as General Antiope and be respectful, even a little fearful. But that’s not how it is. You’re her aunt. The one she goes to when she’s fighting with her mother. The one she needs in her corner when she feels like the rest of the Amazons don’t understand her. The one she loves dearly. Such love doesn’t falter, even when you disappoint each other. It’s what lets you get past that disappointment. You’ll both get past this. I know it.”
Antiope was silent for a moment. “How is it that you can make me feel better so easily?”
“It’s a gift,” Stevie said, easily. “You’re a badass, Diana’s a God-killer. Me? I make beautiful women feel better.”
“Ah. A useful gift.”
“It can be,” Stevie agreed. She ran her hand along Antiope’s arm, enjoying the sensation of the soft skin under her fingertips. “Sometimes.”
Antiope lifted her head, meeting her eyes. “I’ve been concerned about this problem with Diana,” she said. “I knew that I would have to tell her sooner or later. Because of that concern, I’ve been keeping you at sword’s length.”
Stevie exhaled. “We say arm’s length, but okay. I was wondering.”
“Yet, you did not press.”
Stevie shrugged, dropping her hand so that she was no longer touching Antiope. The distance between them, scant as it was, felt like a chasm. “I figured you were busy adjusting to this world. I wasn’t going to put any more pressure on you.”
“Still, it must have felt as if I was…” Antiope hesitated. “No longer interested in you now that we were in your world.”
Stevie absorbed that. “Maybe a little,” she admitted.
“I am still very much attracted to you. And I miss lying with you.”
“Sweet talker,” Stevie accused.
“No, I’m not,” Antiope said somberly. “I do not know the way of poetry and how lovers must speak in romance. I will never be that way. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You’re who you are, and I was attracted to the whole package from the first moment you stuck that arrow in my chest.” Stevie sighed, raking her fingers through her hair. “We can discuss this further, once we’re back at the house. In the meantime, I suppose we should go find Diana. She may have cooled off by now.”
“Yes. She will not stay angry long. I’m more concerned about what she’ll do once her temper eases. She’s prone to finding different ways of attacking that which confounds her. Unexpected ways, like breaking into the tower to steal the sword and shield.”
“She becomes unpredictable?”
“Very.”
Stevie tried to envision what that meant as Antiope picked up a samurai sword that was lying on the top of the cement wall and hooked it over her back.
“Nice sword,” Stevie commented.
“A gift from Supergirl,” Antiope said as they left the training room. “It is a formidable blade.”
“It’s different from those used by the Amazons. You’ll need to learn a new style of fighting.”
“It’s why I came here. To learn.”
In the command center, Alex was standing behind Brainiac Five, looking over his shoulder as he studied the screen. They both looked up as Stevie and Antiope approached.
“We may have a problem,” Alex said.
Stevie felt a chill. “What kind of problem?”
“They’re on the roof.”
“Who is?”
“Diana and Kara,” Alex said. “After Diana came through here like a streak, we decided it might be wise to track her progress with internal cameras. She went into the hangar deck and we weren’t sure of her intentions, so I had Brainy open the launch transom and sent Kara after her. Now they’re talking on the roof.”
“So why is that a problem?” Stevie asked as she came around the console and looked at the small figures on the screen. It wasn’t a great angle and there wasn’t any sound.
“Because you can see the whole city from up there,” Alex said. “If anything happens and Supergirl decides she needs to attend to it, Diana is probably going with her.”
“Oh.” Stevie worried her bottom lip. “That could be a problem.”
Antiope frowned. “Why are you concerned? Diana, despite her tendency to let her guard down in the middle of a battle, can take care of herself.”
“Because when Supergirl shows up at a crime scene, the press isn’t very far behind,” Alex said. “And if the press gets wind of a new meta in the city, if one of them gets a picture of this new…” Alex hesitated briefly, “costumed super-hero, then it won’t be long before the entire world knows she’s here.”
“And Ares will know.” Antiope went white. “He can most likely sense her presence in this world, just as I can sense him, but he doesn’t know where she is. Once he does, he’ll come for her. She isn’t ready.”
“Then, we need to get up on the roof and bring them back inside,” Stevie said, heading for the staircase leading to the levels above. “Come on!”
She and Antiope rushed up the stairs, bypassing the hangar and going straight to the roof access door. Stevie slammed through it, running out onto the large helicopter landing zone where she paused, trying to figure out which area of the roof had been covered by the camera. On the monitor, Diana and Kara had standing in shade, and Kara had been leaning against the parapet. Turning, Stevie noted the northeast corner where the building’s environmental controls were housed, a mechanical penthouse containing the elevators along with the huge air exchange and air conditioning units. That was the only place they could be, and from the sun’s position in the sky, Stevie knew they had to be on the far side.
Stevie took off at a run and Antiope was close behind, allowing her to take the lead as she rounded the corner. Stevie faltered as she saw the two figures rising in the air, one flying and the other leaping so high she might as well be flying. They were both headed toward the eastern part of the city where a dark plume of smoke was rising.
“Damn it, we’re too late,” she said as she slid to a stop.
“We must go after them,” Antiope said and to Stevie’s alarm, started for the edge of the building as if she was preparing to fling herself after them.
“We will,” Stevie promised, catching hold of her arm. She looked at the camera mounted high on the wall of the mechanical penthouse and motioned with her hand, indicating the hangar below. She hoped that would be enough to let Alex know what she was planning. “Let’s go! We’ll grab a ride downstairs.”
Antiope hesitated a few seconds, took another look at her niece growing ever smaller in the distance and followed Stevie. Stevie could hear a muttered word or two from behind as they ran back for the roof access, in a language she didn’t recognize, but strongly suspected was ancient Greek.
And that the words were curses of the direst kind.
Diana was so angry and hurt she wasn’t entirely sure where she was going. She stormed through the command center, barely aware of the startled looks thrown her way by the DEO agents manning their consoles. Kara and Alex were near a screen and it seemed Kara said something to her, but Diana didn’t want to hear it. Instead, she strode into the elevator and pressed the highest level possible, instinctively seeking higher ground in her distress.
That, of course, led her to the hangar floor with its multitude of strange vehicles, the air filled with the harsh scent of fuels, engines and lingering exhaust that the vents, despite being state of the art, could never entirely expel. She turned in a circle feeling trapped and alone when a grinding sound above made her whirl. A section of the ceiling above was drawing back, letting in the glare of the sun and a breeze that carried air which, if not exactly the salt sea cleanliness of Themyscira, was at least, a lot fresher than what the hangar possessed. Diana took two steps and leaped, soaring through the opening and landing on the roof outside, gulping as the sobs rose in her throat.
Angrily, she dashed away the tears and stalked across the roof toward a structure in the corner, walking around to the other side where she felt concealed from prying eyes. Her breath caught as she saw National City from above, for the first time seeing the expanse of it stretching out before her, gleaming buildings reaching for the sky, the other structures only smaller in comparison.
A noise washed over her, the roar of millions of souls living within this city, their machines and their technology and their heartbeats merging into one glorious shout of life that shook Diana to her very core. It was not something she had been able to comprehend on the ground in those short car rides between the house and DEO headquarters. But here, above it all, she could suddenly feel what it meant to be a part of this world, and she stretched out her arms, head tilted back, eyes closed as she allowed it to fill her soul. Long moments passed as her anger subsided, though not her hurt, and she tried to find her center once more.
“Diana?”
Startled, Diana turned, seeing Supergirl only a few feet away, her cape rippling in the wind that blew strongly at this height. Diana hadn’t even sensed her approach. Antiope would be very disappointed that she had allowed her emotion to overcome her perception.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you, but I was a little worried. Are you all right?” Kara’s eyes were deeply blue, her brow furrowed slightly as she regarded Diana. She added, ruefully, “I feel really bad about the sword.”
“The sword was a lie,” Diana said harshly, and at Kara’s flinch, gentled her tone. “That is not the lie that confounds me.”
Kara hesitated, and then leaned against the parapet. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Diana discovered she did, and to this person above all others. “They never told me my true purpose.”
“The Amazons?”
“Yes, but more importantly, my mother and aunt. They kept the truth from me.”
“What truth is that?”
“That I’m nothing more than a weapon created to destroy Ares.” Diana stared out over the city, refusing to let the tears stinging her eyes to fall. “To be used and discarded.”
“I don’t believe they think of you that way,” Kara said. “I know your aunt loves you, at least. I see how you are with her, and she is with you. She’s stern, but she’s so proud of you. You can see it in her eyes.”
Though she remained hurt, her temper had subsided enough that Diana could not deny the truth of Kara’s words. Her memories of her aunt weren’t not just of their training, but of the days they spent fishing and swimming in the ocean, or how Antiope had showed Diana that the best apples were on top of the tree. Or how there had always been treats left on her nightstand after a particularly arduous day. No, she had to admit to herself that neither her mother or Antiope had treated her merely as a weapon to use on Ares. Indeed, it was clear now why Hippolyta had been so reluctant to have her train, or come to the outside world. She had never wanted Diana to find out the truth. To fulfill her destiny.
“They still should not have lied to me,” Diana said.
“Probably not.” Kara shrugged lightly. “Sounds like a judgement call. They made it, right or wrong, and now they have to own it. The thing is, I have to make judgement calls all the time. They’re not always right, but even when they’re not, I still want Alex in my corner. I still want her to be able to forgive me and love me even when I’m wrong. None of us are perfect, Diana.”
Diana exhaled. “No, we are not.” She laughed without humor. “It’s just that I always thought my aunt was.”
“I know how that is,” Kara said. “Believe me, I do. At least yours didn’t try to take over the planet.” Diana stared at her and Kara spread out her hands. “No joke, she really did.”
“What happened?”
“She was killed,” Kara said. She paused. “Alex was forced to stab her in a battle. Again, a judgement call that may or may not have been right. Either way, I had to accept that Alex made it, and that I still love her regardless.”
Diana reached out and put her hand on Kara’s arm. “That is a difficu—”
A sudden rumble interrupted what she’d been about to say and both women looked to the east where a ball of fire exploded into the air.
“Duty calls,” Supergirl said.
“I’ll come with you.”
Kara hesitated. “I can’t wait for you.”
“You won’t have to.”
Diana took three running steps and leaped over the parapet toward a building some distance away. She landed lightly on its roof, ran across it and made another leap to the next tall building, before heading for the next. Supergirl flashed her a grin as she flew by her and suddenly euphoric, Diana picked up the pace, her sprinting and leaping easily keeping pace with Supergirl’s flight toward the explosion.
When they drew close enough, they could see the blast had emanated from an overturned car. It was white, and Diana could see many other similar vehicles with the same logo on their doors, and with flashing blue and red lights on their roofs. Law enforcement, Diana identified. Stevie had explained about the various specialized vehicles that drove around the streets, driven by those who policed the city, by those who fought fires, and by those whose task it was to convey the injured to medical centers. Diana found it wonderfully organized and practical.
Now these uniformed ‘police officers’, both male and female, were squaring off against several others who wore distinctive colorful outfits, purple and gold, bearing weapons of a kind that Diana had seen in the DEO files, but had never witnessed in action. Even as she watched, one of the criminals fired a missile from a rocket launcher he balanced on his shoulder, a deadly dart that streaked though the air and blew up another police cruiser with impressive thoroughness.
Between the two groups, caught in the crossfire, civilians cowered behind what scant cover was available.
“Diana, I’ll take care of the bad guys,” Supergirl shouted with authority as she flew past. “You look after the civilians.”
Diana didn’t hesitate, jumping down into the street. Bullets whizzed by, though Diana’s visual acuity was keen enough to see them pass through the air, making it easy for her to intercept them with the metal of her gauntlets, deflecting them to impact harmlessly into the concrete of nearby buildings. Though that technique was apparently deemed unusual enough to warrant cries of astonishment from various quarters.
As Diana protected the civilians, Supergirl descended upon the criminals. Diana couldn’t tell if they were enhanced or not, but if they were, they were certainly not at Supergirl’s level. There were several of them, however, and they were well armed as the bullets zipping through the air increased exponentially. Diana’s eyes widened as she saw the missile launcher engage again, and she quickly swung her shield around, bracing herself as the missile impacted with a muffled thump, sending her back a few feet as flames billowed around her.
A thin cry caught her attention and glancing sideways, she was horrified to see a contraption containing a small child overturned near a light pole. In the shadow of a nearby car, a woman reached out to the child piteously, screaming as another bystander, a man, kept hold of her, preventing her from rushing out into the line of fire. Diana sprinted across the street, keeping her shield between herself and the concentrated fire targeting her. Throwing her body in front of the toddler, and with one arm holding up the shield, she reached back with the other, fumbled with the straps until they were unfastened and swept the child up against her. It was a boy, she determined, whose survival instincts were keen enough to make him wrap his chubby little arms around her neck, clinging to her like a limpet on a ship’s hull. His cries subsided into whimpers and she glared at those responsible for his danger. If her hands hadn’t been full, and Supergirl hadn’t been doing such damage to them, Diana would have gladly shown them what an Amazon warrior could do.
Finally, Supergirl gathered up the last of the criminals, the battle sputtering to an end, and Diana straightened. From around her came a cascade of cheers, making Diana feel a little self-conscious as she carried the child over to the mother.
“You’re wonderful,” the woman kept saying as Diana handed her the wiggling toddler. “You’re such a wonderful woman. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” Diana gave the child a final chuck beneath the chin and headed to the far end of the street where Supergirl had the metal bumper of an automobile wrapped around the criminals, trapping them together. Their guns were in pieces on the pavement, including the missile launcher. Diana was impressed, and offered Kara a smile that she returned.
“Everything under control?”
“It is and now it’s time to go.” Supergirl angled her head toward the crowd. “The press is here.”
“Press?” Diana echoed uncertainly.
“Yeah, reporters.”
“I thought you were a reporter.”
“I am, and if anyone’s going to tell your story, it’s going to be me,” Kara said. “I want an exclusive. In the meantime, let’s get out of here.”
“Very well.”
Supergirl lifted off, rocketing into the sky. Deciding Kara probably knew what she was talking about, Diana did her best to follow, leaping up to a balcony on a nearby building, using it to launch herself up to a ledge and then up on to the roof. She paused when she saw a helicopter hovering overhead, spotting Stevie through the transparent windshield. She couldn’t make out the expression on her face, but she suspected it wasn’t exactly one of approval.
Stevie banked, turned the helicopter broadside, and Diana saw Antiope slipping from the passenger seat to the back where she slid the side door open, the invitation clear. Diana hesitated, but then sprinted two steps and leaped, landing in the interior of the helicopter.
Despite Stevie’s skill, the helicopter dipped precariously and Diana teetered backward, saved by Antiope’s quick snag of her forearm. For a moment, they looked at each other, sharing the unspoken acknowledgement that whatever had passed between them, they were still family, and always would be. Then Antiope pulled her the rest of the way in and they slid the door shut.
“Enjoy yourself?” Stevie asked over her shoulder, a sardonic note in her voice.
“I did,” Diana said, kneeling just behind the seats. “It was exciting.”
“You should no—” Antiope began and then stopped. Diana glanced at her profile. Antiope was staring through the windshield.
“I should not what?” Diana prodded delicately.
Antiope merely shook her head and Diana stifled a smile, feeling as if she had finally won an argument with her aunt.
It had been a long time coming.
“Well, cat’s out of the bag now,” Stevie said, dropping the morning paper on the kitchen table where Antiope and Diana were eating breakfast, which apparently was much the same on Themyscira as it was here. Fruit, cereal, juice and whatever bread happened to be around. In this case, croissants Stevie had picked up from the bakery. Both were wearing robes, a concession to Stevie and her sense of decorum, no doubt.
Diana picked up the paper, a large smile spreading over her face as she saw the color photo taking up much of the front page. “That’s me!”
“Yes, it is, in all your glory, saving a child from a firefight.” Stevie poured herself a large glass of orange juice, wishing she had some vodka to put in it, even early as it was.
“Who is ‘Wonder Woman’?” Diana asked.
“Apparently, it’s you,” Stevie said. “They interviewed the mother of the child and she kept saying how wonderful you were and boom, you now have a super-hero name. Congratulations.”
“You do not sound sincere.” Diana peered at her over the top of the paper.
“I’m not,” Stevie said. “Neither the DEO nor your aunt wanted you to be public record so soon.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ares already knows you’re here in the outside world,” Antiope said heavily. “Now he’ll know exactly where you are and how to find you.”
“I’m not afraid of Ares,” Diana said.
“Which is what frightens me,” Antiope said. “You’re not ready to face him.”
Diana opened her mouth to respond, no doubt hotly, when Stevie forestalled it with a lifted hand. “She may not be ready,” she said to Antiope. “But she’s also not alone. The theory that she’s the only one that can destroy him, notwithstanding, I doubt he’s prepared to take on not only her, but Supergirl and the DEO, as well. Assuming he does exist, and he’s still alive, and his original motivations remain, I’m more concerned that he’s been lurking in the shadows all this time. Working behind the scenes to destabilize mankind.”
“So, you’re saying he will not attempt to battle her openly,” Antiope said, eyes growing sharper as she contemplated the suggestion. “He will attempt to flank her, isolate her from any support she may have.”
“Exactly.”
“I wish you would not speak of me as if I were not here,” Diana complained.
“We’re not,” Stevie said. “Do you disagree with any of this assessment?”
Diana hesitated. “No,” she admitted. “I understand what you are saying. But what’s the alternative?”
“Draw him out,” Stevie suggested. “At least enough for the DEO to get a line on him. Figure out what he’s been doing all this time and where he’s been.”
“How would we do that?” Antiope asked. She paused, thinking it over. “Yes, I see. Make it more apparent that Diana is the God-killer. Give him what he perceives is an easy target. Instead, make it a trap.”
Stevie spread out her hands. “You’re the general. Would this plan work?”
“It would, provided we choose the field of battle very carefully.”
“Plenty of desert around,” Stevie said. “Uninhabited. Little chance of collateral damage. We’ll need to arrange for interviews with the press, get her more exposure.”
“Kara is a reporter,” Diana said, as she peeled a banana. “She wishes an ‘exclusive’.”
Stevie stared at her. “What do you mean Kara’s a reporter?”
“Her ‘alter-ego’,” Diana explained. “Apparently, most metas live a double life, to make money to pay one’s debts. It’s consider unethical to earn money from doing good deeds as a super-hero. Supergirl’s alter-ego is Kara Danvers, reporter for CatCo Worldwide Media.”
“Danvers? Supergirl is Alex’s little sister!?!” Stevie was totally blindsided. Was she really that oblivious to what was going on around her? How had she not known that?
“Of course.” Diana looked at her with almost pity, as if Stevie was the dumbest person on the planet, or at least, it felt that way to her. Stevie knew Diana would never be so uncharitable in her mind. She was far too kind and compassionate for that.
“Damn, I can’t believe Alex never told me.”
“To be fair, it may have been Kara’s secret to tell,” Antiope said, casting a stern look in Diana’s direction. Diana had the grace to look embarrassed as she took in her aunt’s meaning.
“Will I have an alter-ego?” Diana looked at Stevie. “I think I would like to be a police officer, like the ones I saw yesterday.”
“My understanding is that you pick a profession as far away from your meta self as possible,” Stevie told her. “Otherwise, you’ll start doing amazing things as a cop, draw too much attention, and your identity will no longer be secret.”
“Is that so important?” Antiope made a small face of disapproval. “Diana is who she is, Princess of Themyscira, the God-killer.”
“I know, but while you might not mind it now, Diana, being ‘Wonder Woman’ full time isn’t necessarily a good thing. Believe me, if anyone knew you were living here, this house would be surrounded by press and crowds of admirers. It’s call being a celebrity.” Stevie exhaled and waved her spoon. “Not just admirers. There’s a dark side to that, a side that draws creeps and stalkers, those with dangerous obsessions. Then there’s going to be what you do as Wonder Woman, the enemies you’ll make. There’s a reason the DEO tries to keep its activities and its agents off the grid. Imagine if one of those guys you stopped yesterday decided one day in the future that they’re going to get back at you. Imagine one of them setting up with a sniper rifle from somewhere out of sight and firing a bullet into this breakfast nook, to try to take out me, because I’m your friend, or Antiope, because she’s your aunt, just to hurt you.”
Diana had stopped eating, staring at her. “Are people so cruel?”
“Yes,” Antiope said, before Stevie could. “Of course, they are. Even on Themyscira, there were instances of pettiness, of jealousy and envy. Not many and not to the extent it became a problem. Your mother has always been very good at attending all the needs of her people, of ferreting out any unhappiness, but even Amazons are not entirely free of darker emotions.”
Diana considered that. “That’s true. It’s said that your fights with Menalippe are legendary.”
Stevie couldn’t entirely stifle her snort of laughter, and she didn’t dare look at Antiope’s expression, suspecting it would dismantle all her control. She was glad to see that Diana was teasing Antiope again. It meant their disagreement had been settled, or at least, was no longer a sore spot. Diana smiled brightly at her aunt and resumed eating her cereal. Antiope didn’t respond and Stevie wasn’t sure if that was her normal reaction, to ignore her niece’s provocation, or if she was still a little sensitive about the revelation the day before and didn’t want to be drawn into an argument.
“In any event,” Stevie said, drawing their focus back to the matter at hand, “we’ll worry about your secret identity later. In the meantime, we need to get together with Alex and Supergirl and work out a plan of action.” She sighed. “No doubt after I get raked over the coals by the director for letting you into the public before we were ready.”
After Diana finished her breakfast, took her dishes to the kitchen and disappeared upstairs to dress, Stevie looked at Antiope. “We were going to discuss this distance you’re keeping between us.” She tried not to show her disappointment. “I thought you might join me last night.”
“Why did you not join me?” Antiope countered. “My bed may not be as large as yours, but it’s of sufficient size.”
“Oh,” Stevie said, realizing she hadn’t even considered that. “I guess I’m used to letting you dictate the pace of this.” She winced. “Don’t tell me you were lying awake all night, waiting to hear footsteps in the hall like I was?”
“Not all night,” Antiope admitted. She exhaled audibly. “I may be a great deal older than you, but that does not necessarily mean I have more experience. I do not always know if my attentions will be welcome. Or even when they are wanted. Occasionally I may take a chance, as I did with you on Themyscira, but it’s not in my nature. I require more encouragement.”
“Really, I never would have guessed,” Stevie marveled. “I thought you were very familiar with the art of seduction.” She reached out and put her hand over Antiope’s, squeezing her fingers. “I’m sorry. I’ve been making assumptions. Partially because this is a relationship with an expiration date. You’ll be returning to Themyscira, and I’ll have to say good-bye. Maybe I’ve been allowing the distance between us the past few days to stand, so I don’t fall in love with you. I’m afraid of feeling that kind of pain.”
Antiope looked sad. “I understand.” She started to draw back her hand, but Stevie wouldn’t let her, tightening her grip.
“That doesn’t mean I want this to stop,” she told her. “I won’t go through life letting fear dictate my actions. I would rather say good-bye to you, having spent every moment I could with you, than say good-bye while refusing to take a chance.”
Antiope didn’t say anything. She just pulled Stevie to her, chair and all, the legs screeching briefly on the floor, and kissed her, so deeply that she took Stevie’s breath away. Stevie wrapped her arm around Antiope’s neck and kissed her back. Slipping her other hand beneath the neck of Antiope’s wrap, she covered one full breast with her hand, chafing the nipple with her palm. Things were just getting interesting when footsteps on the stairs made them draw apart, hastily straightening their robes.
Diana came into the kitchen, dressed in blue jeans, a red t-shirt and white tennis shoes.
“What is that?” Antiope demanded.
“My alter-ego of Diana Prince,” Diana told her.
Stevie looked her over. “That’s good, but honestly, people are going to take a second look at you even in civilian clothes. You’re gorgeous. And tall. So very, very tall.” She thought a moment. “Stay here a minute.”
She dashed upstairs and retrieved a few things from the dresser. Disguise was occasionally part of a DEO agent’s job. Stevie had a case of materials, including glasses with lenses that altered the appearance of eyes, and other items designed to disguise the human face. Grabbing a jacket from the closet, she returned to the kitchen.
“Come here, Diana,” Stevie said, putting her supplies on the island counter. Obligingly, Diana took a seat on a stool and aside from a startled widening of her eyes, didn’t move as Stevie used a makeup pencil to add some understated lines around her mouth and eyes. Then she placed the glasses on Diana’s face, and put her hair up in a French twist.
Antiope watched. “You have added years to her appearance,” she said, sounding very impressed. “So easily.”
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Stevie said. “Just a few subtle touches and human nature does the rest. A person sees what they want to see. What they expect to see. Here, Diana, put on this jacket. It makes it look as if you’re a little heavier than you are.”
“I’m astonished,” Antiope said after Diana pulled the jacket on over her red t-shirt. “It is as if she is an entirely different person.”
“You have to help, Diana,” Stevie said. “You can even disguise your height. Try to walk with a little more reserve, not as if you own the entire world, which is how you normally walk. Let your shoulders slump, bend your head a little.”
Diana practiced a little, and Stevie applauded. “Well done. Got it on your first try.”
“This is amazing,” Antiope said.
“I know, right?” Stevie said. “The art of being a spy isn’t to sneak around, Antiope. It’s to look as if you belong there. Walk right in under their noses, and they won’t even see you. It’s like you’re invisible.”
“I want to try this when we go into the DEO today,” Diana said, obviously intrigued.
“That’s a good idea,” Stevie said. “Give Antiope and I a few minutes to get ready and we’ll be on our way.”
Upstairs, she took a quick shower before pulling on her DEO uniform, black trousers, high collared, long sleeved shirt, utility belt, pistol strapped to her right hip, and low-cut combat boots. As she came out of the bedroom, she met Antiope coming out of hers and stopped dead. The Amazon general was wearing the same uniform, her hair pulled back in a long braid, looking even more dangerous than she did in leather armor. Stevie hadn’t thought that was possible.
“Have you joined the agency, and I didn’t know about it?” Stevie asked, bemused as she took in the katana strapped to Antiope’s back, and the pistol on her hip.
“No, but if we are talking about disguise, it’s best I blend into the background, is it not? It will give us an advantage if Ares is unaware there is more than one Amazon here.”
“It will,” Stevie agreed. “Did you raid my closet?”
“No, this was in with the other supplies the DEO issued.” Antiope paused. “It occurs to me that we’re accepting much from you, Food. Lodging. Transportation. Clothing. I’ve only been here a few days, but it’s long enough to recognize that there is an economic expenditure, both on the part of the DEO and by you, personally. We can pay our way.” She drew something from the pouch on her belt and deposited it into Stevie’s hand. It was a heavy bar of metal and appeared to be solid gold.
Stevie gaped at it. “Where the hell did you get this?”
“We have a great deal of this metal on Themyscira. It’s soft, useless for anything but jewelry and decoration, but after discovering that the outside world based their economies on it, Hippolyta suggested I bring some along. Is it sufficient or do you require more?”
“No, this is sufficient,” Stevie said, wryly. “I’ll give it to Danvers. The DEO should be able to convert it into something more convenient for you to spend.”
“I think you and Diana just became rich.”
"All right, Diana, are you ready?
Kara was dressed as her alter-ego, blue shirt, tan sweater, bluish patterned skirt with low heels. She also wore glasses, and her long, blonde hair was drawn back in a ponytail. Diana was unsure why that was sufficient to keep people from realizing she was also Supergirl, but on the other hand, when she had walked into DEO headquarters earlier that day in her ‘Diana Prince’ outfit, there were several people who did not recognize her, people with whom she had previously interacted. A guard she had passed every day in her armor suddenly tried to bar her entry into the building, and it required Stevie to intervene.
Perhaps it really did come down to demeanor. Diana noted that Kara was not only wearing subdued clothing, she was displaying a sudden clumsiness and an awkward way of speaking while radiating a sense of insecurity that combined to make her completely unlike herself.
“Are you doing that on purpose?” Diana asked. “It is very good.”
Kara smiled and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Yes, but it’ll help if you just pretend I’m someone you’ve never met. It’s like acting.”
Diana, in full armor, with shield and a newly repaired sword, sat back in her chair. She wasn’t sure she could pretend that well, but she would do her best. It was simply one more instruction in a host of many that she’d been given about this interview. Not only was she to hint Themyscira had been destroyed in a volcanic blast, which was why she had come to man’s world, she was not to mention Antiope, or reveal her connection to the DEO. Such deception was foreign to her. A few days ago, she would have suggested it was foreign to the entire Amazonian culture, but now she knew better.
She looked at Antiope who was standing by Stevie, observing this. She scarcely recognized her aunt in the dark DEO uniform, except possibly for her perpetual scowl. That was all too familiar. Perhaps Antiope didn’t think she could do this, either. That was enough to stiffen Diana’s resolve. She had to be capable of some dishonesty, she thought stubbornly. She had crept into the tower and stolen the God-killer, the Star Shield, the Lasso of Hestia and her armor right out from under the queen’s guards, after all.
“Wait,” Antiope said, suddenly. Surprised, Kara and Diana looked at her as she came over and carefully put something on Diana’s forehead, fingertips lingering as she made sure it was straight. “This is yours now. You have earned it.”
Diana was overwhelmed. Antiope’s helm crest was part of her identity, an acknowledgement that she was the greatest warrior in history, the fiercest the Amazons had ever known. For her to part with it, to pass it on to Diana, was significant in ways that the rest of the people present could never really comprehend.
“Thank you,” Diana’s voice was husky as she felt tears spring to her eyes. “I will bring only honor to it.”
“I know you will,” Antiope said, and stepped back.
Kara, looking back and forth between them, apparently understood that something profound had happened, but not knowing what. She leaned forward and patted Diana on the knee. “Ready?”
Diana blinked back her tears. “Yes,” she said. “Begin.”
Kara nodded at Brainiac behind the camera, waited a few seconds as he flicked his fingers down, three, two, one, and began to speak. “Hello, I’m Kara Danvers for CatCo Media, and we’re here today with National City’s newest super-hero, Wonder Woman.” She turned to look at Diana, smiling broadly in a way that seemed not altogether genuine. “Tell me, what brings you to National City?”
Diana suddenly felt nervous, though she was unsure why. With an effort, she tried to ignore it. “I have come to man’s world to fulfill my destiny,” she began. “To destroy the evil known as Ares, the enemy of my people, the Amazons.”
The rest of the questions were innocuous, and when she was asked about Themyscira, she remembered how much she loved it, and how much she missed her mother, so that her emotions were real when she said she found it difficult to speak about it. Kara was careful in how she led Diana through the interview, concentrating mostly on how everything was so different and strange in ‘man’s world’. Diana spent a solid two minutes on the joy of ice cream.
When it was finished, she felt as if she had just been through one of Antiope’s tougher training sessions. “How was I?” she asked anxiously as she joined her aunt and Stevie.
Stevie made a face. “A little stiff,” she admitted. “The bit about the ice cream was good.”
“She was fine,” Kara said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, more an involuntary twitch rather than because it was necessary. “The camera’s going to love her. We’ll do some editing, bring in some of the video captured when she protected the civilians during the robbery at the museum, add some facts and figures with bright color in the background. It’ll get the job done.” She made a face. “And it’ll get Andrea off my back. She knows I know Supergirl, she knows Supergirl knows Wonder Woman, therefore, I must know Wonder Woman and should have had this exclusive by now.”
Diana shook her head. “I do not think I shall ever get used to the name.”
“Well, once the press coins it, you’re pretty much stuck with it,” Kara said. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled when people started calling me Supergirl.”
“Because of the ‘girl’ part?” Stevie lifted her eyebrow.
“I know, right? I mean, Cat gave me this whole speech about how being a girl was great and that it wasn’t an insult. It’s not that I disagree with her take on it, but c’mon, why wasn’t it Superwoman?”
“You are young,” Antiope pointed out. And when all three, Kara, Stevie and Diana looked at her, she smiled faintly. “If it’s implied you are, but a girl, you will be forgiven any mistakes that might not be absolved in an adult.”
Kara thought about that. “In the beginning, I did have a few growing pains that could have turned the public against me,” she admitted. “Still, that implies that at some point, the name will be changed to something more mature, and I don’t think it will. I’ll be flying around with wrinkles and gray hair, and they’ll still be calling me Supergirl.”
Diana blinked as she suddenly realized all those around her were mortal, that they would succumb to the passing years and eventually die, aged and withered. She couldn’t imagine what that was like, even though she might be as mortal as they were. She looked at Antiope. Was she still immortal even out here? Was it possible that one day, Diana would return to Themyscira, old and gnarled and look at her mother and aunt, still young and vital and beautiful? How odd would that be?
“What’s wrong, Diana?” Stevie asked. “You have the oddest expression on your face.”
Diana opened her mouth, about to explain, realizing it would be lengthy, and merely shook her head instead. “It is nothing. A stray thought.” She looked to Antiope. “Will this draw out Ares?”
“It will,” Antiope said, “but perhaps not directly. He may send others to probe your defenses. It depends on how much his mind has evolved. In my time, he would have wasted no time in attacking, but even he must adapt to this new world where humans and other gods reign supreme. There is a reason he is unknown to the DEO.”
“Assuming he still exists,” Stevie said.
“He does,” Antiope said with certainty.
“Well, we’ll kick him back into obscurity,” Kara said, and nudged Diana. “Right?”
“Right,” Diana said, proud to have one such as her fight at her side. She paused. “We are not leaving him alive. It is my mission to destroy him.”
“Yeah, well, let’s see if he pops his head up before we decide how hard we’re going to whack it,” Stevie said, forestalling any further discussion.
“In the meantime, I’d like you to meet someone,” Kara said. “If you’re willing.”
“Of course,” Diana said. “Who?”
“Nura Nal,” Kara said. “My friend. She can’t wait to meet you. She's at Catco, right now.”
“You okay with it, Antiope?” Stevie glanced over at Antiope inquiringly.
“Diana is an adult,” Antiope said. “She makes her own decisions.”
Diana wondered when that had happened. It must have been when she discovered the truth about herself. She actually had more questions regarding that, but she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know the answers. A part was beginning to suspect the whole story about being sculpted from clay was more of a fantasy and less an actual tale of her start in life. What that meant in terms of her having a father was even more dire.
“Hey, what if we all go out after we see Nura,” Kara added. “We could have a girl’s night.”
“What is a girl’s night?” Diana asked.
“Ahh, something you may not be ready for,” Stevie said, casting a sideways look at Kara. “What are talking about here?”
“There’s a bar downtown, a safe haven for off-worlders to hang out, have a drink, not feel so alone for a minute,” Kara said. “I thought Diana would like to check it out.”
“I would,” Diana said, eagerly. She looked at Stevie. “I’ll be fine.”
“Do you know what a bar is?”
“Kara just told me. It’s a safe haven.”
Stevie made a face. “It’s a place to drink,” she said. “Alcohol.”
“It’s not just to drink,” Kara protested. “You can play pool, play darts, sit around and talk. It’s a cool place, Stevie.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“I won’t let anything happen to her,” Kara promised, looking very innocent behind those wire frame glasses.
“I’m not a child,” Diana said, piqued.
“Fine, I not your mother or your keeper, Diana. Knock yourself out.” Stevie put her hand on Antiope’s arm. “I guess that leaves you and me with an empty house this evening.” She smiled. “I’m sure we can find some way to occupy ourselves.”
The color rose in Antiope’s cheeks. “I’m sure we can,” she agreed. Antiope shot a look at Diana. “Be smart.”
Diana nodded. “I shall,” she said, thinking that if it had been her mother who had accompanied them to the outside world, rather than Antiope, they’d still be talking about it an hour from now. She watched as Antiope and Stevie left and smiled when she saw Stevie take Antiope’s hand as they got on the elevator.
“Okay, let’s get out of here,” Kara said. “We can take a cab.”
“Should I change?”
Kara hesitated. “Nura would love to see the whole getup. But it might attract attention on the way there. It’s up to you.”
“I have a cloak,” Diana said. “It conceals my armor when we travel between the house and headquarters.”
“That’ll do,” Kara said. “Come on.”
Diana retrieved her cloak from the command center and caught up to Kara at the elevator. As they stood there, she glanced at Kara, so glad that she had found someone so special that was willing to befriend her in this strange new world.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if such a friendship might turn into something more.
“Would you like to go out tonight?” Stevie asked as she and Antiope got into the car.
“What does that mean?” Antiope settled back against the passenger seat after placing her sword on the floor. “I can tell from your expression it’s of significance, but I’m unsure in which context.”
Stevie exhaled. “What do you call it on Themyscira when you’re interested in a woman and you want to make your interest known?”
“Talking,” Antiope said.
“No, I mean, don’t you do something special? Give her gifts or prepare special meals for her or…well, you said you didn’t do poetry, but surely you recognize its intention in romancing someone.” Stevie started the car. “What did Amazons do when they wanted to romance you?”
“They generally made me a dagger,” Antiope said, after a few moments thought. “Or had a dagger made for me.”
“Huh,” Stevie said. She turned onto the street and accelerated toward the suburbs. “You have a lot of daggers.”
Antiope smiled. “Just because I accept a gift does not mean I agree to share pleasure in return. Indeed, that would make it not a gift at all.”
Stevie sighed. “Would you like me to give you a dagger?”
“You’ve already given me your best knife,” Antiope pointed out.
“I don’t remember giving it to you,” Stevie reminded her. “You took it and wouldn’t give it back.”
“Yes, I did.” Antiope shot her an amused look. “What has this to do with ‘going out’.”
“Oh, it’s just in this culture, when people are in a relationship, they go out to dinner, go dancing, go to a movie or do something else.”
“As a prelude to sharing pleasure?” Antiope considered that. “It seems a waste of time. I’m usually hungry afterward, not before.”
Stevie laughed. “All right, I can accept that. Shall we share pleasure once we get home? Then go out to dinner?”
“Yes, I believe I would like that, very much.”
Stevie shook her head. She had never been with anyone like the Amazon general. Of course, there weren’t many in the world like Antiope. The trouble was that made Stevie hesitant, unsure of how to approach her, how to make it clear what she wanted. Perhaps she needed to remember that Antiope, as fierce and powerful as she was, was still a woman reaching out for an emotional connection, but finding it difficult to do so.
Once inside the house, Stevie immediately pulled Antiope into an embrace, kissing her passionately. Then Antiope took her hand and pulled her toward the stairs. Smiling, Stevie followed to the master bedroom where Antiope turned and seized her in an aggressive embrace, mouth coming down on Stevie’s with an almost possessive hunger. Stevie was thrilled and returned the kisses, fumbling with the front of Antiope’s uniform shirt. But first they had to get rid of their weapons, sword and gun belt, placing them on the dresser, while Stevie put her Glock in its customary place in the drawer of the nightstand.
“I miss the armor,” she admitted as she turned back to Antiope, quickly unbuttoning the shirt and pushing it off her shoulders. She was unsurprised, but very gratified, to discover that Antiope wore nothing underneath.
“I do, too,” Antiope admitted. “These clothes chafe. I understand now why you wear undergarments.”
“Ouch,” Stevie muttered sympathetically, as she brushed her fingertips over Antiope’s nipples, noting the redness of the delicate flesh. “Too sensitive?”
Antiope caught her breath. “Just sensitive enough,” she admitted. She caught at Stevie’s shirt, pulling her close. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” Stevie admitted. “I promise, I’ll try to tell you exactly what I want and need when I want and need it.”
“That would be so reasonable,” Antiope said. “And unlike anything I have known.”
“You have to promise to do the same,” Stevie said as she unfastened Antiope’s trousers. She slipped her hands around to her back, sliding them beneath the heavy fabric, again unsurprised to discover there was nothing but soft, smooth skin beneath her palms. “You really need to wear underwear. I can only imagine what this did to your more delicate areas.”
“You shall have to be very gentle,” Antiope warned her.
“Oh, I will,” Stevie said as she pushed them down. “In fact, I think I’ll kiss all those little sore spots and make them better.”
Antiope exhaled sharply. “You have such healing powers?”
“Oh, I didn’t say I would heal them, just make them feel better,” Stevie promised as she knelt to untie Antiope’s boots.
Antiope’s clothes finally tossed aside, Stevie quickly removed her own, and joined Antiope on the bed. “Now lie back and let me do my magic.”
Antiope, clearly intrigued, smiled as she relaxed against the bedding, watching Stevie with lidded eyes as she proceeded to begin at Antiope’s toes and work her way up, mouthing a tender trail up the Amazon’s right leg. Antiope didn’t shave, of course, but the hairs were so fine as to be almost nonexistent, wisps of gold over the silky skin. Moving over the superbly muscled thighs, Stevie carefully bypassed that so tantalizing center and started on the other leg, kissing each toe and meandering up that lean calf. She kissed Antiope’s hip, and across the marks the pants had left on her abdomen. By this time, Antiope was quivering at every touch and Stevie was impressed she hadn’t made a grab for her.
“You are torturing me,” Antiope whispered.
“Much better technique than just throwing a lasso around you,” Stevie said. Covering Antiope’s left nipple, she tongued it gently, tender flutters that made the tissue grow stiff. “I’m sure you’ll tell me all your secrets now.”
“Every single one,” Antiope admitted, and then arched as Stevie moved over to the other breast, granting it her utmost attention. She tangled her hands in Stevie’s short blonde hair, tugging at it lightly. “Please,” she muttered, a helpless plea for succor.
Stevie considered this payback. Antiope had tormented her just as sweetly on Themyscira, using her hands and mouth to draw out the pleasure until Stevie had been begging for release. Antiope may not be so verbal in her suppliant, but her body was certainly demanding that Stevie move things along, twitching and undulating, shuddering with each touch. Delighting in the power she had over her, Stevie refused to be hurried, kissing Antiope’s mouth, tasting her thoroughly before beginning the lazy journey back, down her throat where she felt the pulse jumping under her lips, along the smooth plane of her chest to the firm swells of her breasts.
By the time she settled between Antiope’s legs, she could tell it would take very little to send the Amazon over the edge, so she held off as long as possible, kissing the tender junction of leg and body, nuzzling through the fine patch of golden triangle, then brushing against each pouting lip.
“Please!” Antiope cried out.
Finally, finally, Stevie used her thumbs to spread open the vulnerable flesh and ran her tongue lavishly from the pool of wetness to the apex of her ridge. Antiope climaxed with a shudder that ran through her from her clenched teeth to her curled toes. Contentedly, Stevie continued to tease and pleasure her, playing her skillfully until she cried out again, and then a third time.
Stevie rested her head on Antiope’s stomach, listening to the soft sounds beneath her cheek, the resumption of the steady beat of her heart, the slowing of her respiration. Antiope’s fingers slipped gently through Stevie’s hair, stroking in a soothing randomness that would have put Stevie to sleep were she not so thoroughly aroused.
But patient. Waiting for Antiope to come back to herself, granting her the space to gather those bits and pieces taken apart by desire.
“That was…” Antiope began after several minutes, her voice sounding rusty, as if she had not used it in some time. “I have no words.”
Stevie couldn’t feel smugger than she already did, but it was still nice to hear.
Lifting her head, she met the cool blue gaze of her Amazon lover. “Turnabout’s fair play,” she said.
“Is that one of your metaphors?”
“A simile, actually,” Stevie said.
“Apt.”
“Yes.”
Antiope’s eyes narrowed. “Come here.”
Stevie didn’t argue.
Many hours later, a bang woke her up with a jolt, and she peered at the clock on the nightstand, annoyed to see it was two in the morning. Beside her. Antiope had sat straight up, head turning alertly.
“What was that?” Stevie said.
“Someone is in the house.” Antiope slipped out of bed and over to the dresser where she had placed her weapons. By the time Stevie had pulled on some shorts and a t-shirt, Antiope was gliding down the hall, samurai sword held out in front of her.
Sans armor.
Stevie prudently took her Glock, sprinting to take up position at Antiope’s flank as they crept down the stairs. Both relaxed as they saw Kara trying to pick Diana up off the floor in the living room.
“Is she drunk?” Stevie accused. “I thought you were just going to hang out and play pool.”
“Are you naked?” Kara asked, goggling at Antiope.
“Diana, are you all right?” Antiope asked, ignoring Kara.
“Kara says I’m floaty,” Diana said from her back, waving her hands randomly about. “But I’m not floating.”
“Jesus, you’re drunk, too,” Stevie said, as Kara stumbled over the coffee table and fell on the sofa. “I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Aldebaran rum,” Kara explained. “It’s supposed to be poisen…poiso…. bad for humans, but Diana drank four and she’s fine.”
“I did not think it possible for Diana to become intoxicated either,” Antiope said, observing her niece with the vaguest hint of a smile. “She’s completely unaffected by Trigona’s wine, regardless of how much she drinks.”
“How many did you have?” Stevie asked Kara.
“Three,” Kara said. “Diana beat me.”
“Ah, great, a drinking contest.” Stevie exhaled. “Okay, Kara, I’m going to call Alex.” She stopped. “No, I’m not. It’s two in the morning. You’re going to sleep in Antiope’s bed.” She looked at the Amazon general standing there so strong and proud and so very naked. “Can you get Diana?”
“Of course.” Antiope put her sword down on a table that backed the sofa, and reached down for Diana who was beginning to curl up as if intent on sleeping on the floor. Hauling her to her feet despite mumbled protests, Antiope got her shoulder under Diana’s armpit, securing her, and pushed her toward the stairs.
Stevie crooked her finger at Kara who obediently rose from the sofa and caught her arm as she began to stagger after Antiope and Diana.
“Whoops, here we go,” Stevie said, more or less guiding her up the stairs. “Why were you drinking?”
“Diana was talking about discovering she’s the God-killer.” Kara let out a gusty sigh. “I was talking about Lena Luthor.”
“Lena?”
“She was my friend. Now she's not.” Kara looked on the verge of becoming very weepy. “I didn't tell her I was Supergirl and now she hates me.”
“Okay,” Stevie said, nudging Kara down the hall. “So, commiserating over how life isn’t fair required a drink?”
“Oh, no, it started when a couple of rums were sent over by some nice aliens at the bar,” Kara said. “They were drink flirting.”
“Wonderful,” Stevie said. It occurred to her that because Antiope was there in man’s world with her, Diana was more inclined to be adventurous that she might have been on her own. “Why did Diana have four?”
“I think I dared her on the last one.”
“How did you get home?”
“We took a cab,” Kara said as Stevie dropped her onto Antiope’s bed. “See, we’re being responsible. Besides, it’s not like I could fly.”
“Okay, that’s good, I guess.” Stevie retrieved the waste basket from across the room and put it by the bed. Kara was already dozing off and shaking her head, Stevie pulled off her shoes, draped a throw over her, and shut out the light.
Out in the hall, Stevie saw Antiope come out of Diana’s room, leaving the door ajar. “Did you put something by the bed in case she’s sick in the morning?”
“Yes, there was container by the desk. It should suffice.”
Stevie ran her eyes down Antiope’s lean body and back up again. “I’m not sure how I feel about you displaying your assets to anyone who happens to break in here.”
“It was more important to be armed than clothed,” Antiope said. She looked toward the staircase. “I should have had my armor with me. I’ve become too comfortable in this dwelling.”
“Or you could just move into the master bedroom with me,” Stevie suggested. “Save yourself from worrying about it.”
Antiope regarded her steadily for a moment. “Yes, I could,” she said finally.
Stevie let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “Well, we’ll worry about it tomorrow,” she said as she slipped her arm around Antiope’s waist. “In the meantime, we should get some sleep.”
“I have a feeling we may need it, especially if we’re going to be dealing with a pair of hungover superheroes.”
The End