Amazon Days - Epilogue
Unknown location:
In a dark, enclosed chamber, two exceptionally dangerous men - though each in vastly different ways - stared at one another across encrypted, featureless monitor screens.
"I take it everything went according to plan?" The first asks, leaning back in his chair and his fingers.
"Perfectly." The second answers, his voice distinctly rougher. "Wotan reports an absolute success and the evidence of Circe's rampage on Themyscira speaks for itself."
"A rousing success, then. And where exactly is the woman of the hour now?"
"Gone. Likely returned to her domain with her prize in tow."
"So I suppose we won't be inviting a new member to our cabal?
"Hardly. The witch-queen keeps to her own company and her priorities are too... narrow-minded for our purposes."
"I see. I'll admit, I do have... concerns. From what you've told me of her so-called prize-"
"It is no concern of ours."
"But it could rapidly become so, should she unleash it without taking the proper precautions. And from everything I've heard of her, she doesn't exactly strike me as the patient type."
"On the contrary - Circe is exceptionally patient. A necessary virtue for any immortal. Her business with the Amazons is simply... personal."
...
"I suppose you would know."
"Indeed."
"Then we leave her to her devices?"
"For now. The matter can be revisited if her games with the Helm and the Amazons prove to be problematic. Until then, we are better off not making an enemy of her."
"And if she decides to make an enemy of us?"
"That is what Klarion is for."
There's another longer pause
"I'll leave it to the experts, then." The first speaker says at last "And Wotan?"
"He did exactly as he was supposed to. Circe's attack was the perfect distraction, and he succeeded in absconding away with several very valuable artifacts from the Themysciran treasury, and one in particular you are already well aware of."
"Yes, the purple-healing ray." He snorts humourlessly. "A little on the nose, that, but really, I shouldn't complain - I'll be renaming it soon enough."
"How soon can you commence your work with it?
"As I already have several of my best Lex-corp research teams ready to take a crack at it. All off the books, of course. Dr. Desmond in particular is very eager to get his hands on it for Project Cadmus."
"That man is entirely too eager to demand new resources."
"Oh, very much so, but he's yet to fail to produce results and I have him well in hand."
"Very well. If there's nothing else?"
"One last small matter. I'll be needing Deathstroke's time for the short-term future. A few weeks at most. Unless you're opposed?"
"Not as of yet. For what particular reason?"
"Oh, nothing too strenuous, I assure you. I simply need him to complete some... subtle reconnaissance."
There's a final stretch of contemplative silence
"The boy, then"
"Yes. It's about time that the Light learned everything there is to know about Marcus Milton. Wouldn't you agree?"
...
"Agreed."
Halfway around the world, upon hearing Vandal Savage's implicit approval, Lex Luthor smiles.
A day after the attack on Themyscira, Donna descends into the patch of wild forest where Circe had unleashed the Hydra.
Or, well, what's left of it, which isn't very much at all beyond blackened earth and layers of ash thick enough that the largest of them goes up nearly to her knees. The smell of the smoldering remains of the wildlife overpowers the salty breeze from the ocean, and the sight of the damage is just miserable even if she's already learning to ignore it.
It's regrow, sooner or later. the Amazons had all the time in the world.
She turns her sight away from it and finds something else to stare at instead.
Mark is standing not too far away from her now, right at the very edge of a massive crater that hadn't been there the night before.
"I've been looking all over for you." She smiles when he shrugs and tilts his head in something that might be a half-hearted greeting. It's a sad effort, really, but she can still tell that there's something... looser to him than there was the days before.
Less tense and on edge, and more... tired.
But not necessarily in a bad way.
"I've been here."
"Remembering the fight?
"No."
Without looking at her, he sighs and angles his head up to stare at the sky. It's pretty early, and the morning sun has just started hitting the pearlescent sky above the island in just the right way to make it sparkle.
"I'm already done with that. I'm thinking about...everything else."
That's... mildly unhelpful, as far as answers go, but she's not about to complain.
Donna still doesn't know enough about him to guess at the context of 'everything else' and why he sounds so frustratedly exhausted about it, but she's familiar with having baggage and she knows better than to ask about someone else's.
"How did you beat the hydra?" She asks instead
He blinks and turns to stare at her.
"It regenerated." She's not sure about the 'cut of one head, two more take its place' thing she'd heard from the myths - and Hippolyta's stories, who'd been around when the original was alive and kicking - but she'd seen it regrow flesh and regenerate scales. That couldn't have been fun to deal with. "How'd you manage to get past that?"
"I blew up."
...
"What?"
He looks as surprised as she feels, as though he hadn't meant to tell her that, but he doesn't stop explaining
"I blew up. Released most of my energy in one burst and flash-fried it into nothingness. That's what took out the rest of the forest."
...
Slowly, she pans her eyes across the utter wasteland surrounding them.
… okay then
"Huh."
He grimaces "Yeah."
"That's-"
"Yes."
"Dude-"
"Believe me, I know."
He sounds so irritated she can't help snorting, even if she's still gaping on the inside at how outrageously ridiculous that story sounds.
She shakes her head to get rid of the last of the laughter and takes a few steps forward.
"So I heard you talked to Diana."
"She talked to me." He corrects dryly. "Talked at me, mostly."
Donna frowns.
"She didn't-"
"She was perfectly courteous." Mark rolls his neck side to side, expression distant. "She asked me who I was, and how I ended up on the island. A few other things."
And they must have all checked out, or he wouldn't be walking free right now. Diana must have used the Lasso, and Mark must not have minded.
Or maybe she hadn't.
It was almost impossible to lie to Diana even without the use of the Lasso. Donna still wasn't sure whether it was more magic crap or just the unbreakable poker face.
"That's it?"
He shrugs again.
"She was needed with the relief efforts and... the preparations.
Ah.
That.
Preparations. Funeral preparations.
She feels her mood plummet.
Crice's attack had done a number on the island... but that didn't mean a damned thing when compared to what she'd done to the amazons.
Most of them were warriors, but there was only ever one Hippolyta, one Diana, and most recently, one her. The rest of them weren't nearly at the same level, and it showed.
Last night, forty-three amazons died.
Thousands of years of life on Themyscira, irreplaceable people in every way, and suddenly they were just gone.
She swallows roughly at the reminder and looks to the ground, the lump in her throat refusing to budge.
A lot of them were her friends, and all of them were Diana's before they were hers.
If Mark notices - and he very likely does - he doesn't say a thing about it.
"She believed me. It's why I don't have a leash anymore. Not even Queen Hippolyta argued against it."
If that's an attempt to change the subject, it's a poor one, and they both know it.
Donna still tries to humor it - and really tries not to remember the fact that Hippolyta had lost an eye right in front of her
"I'm pretty sure you don't have a leash anymore because you helped protect the island." She says quietly
"... Maybe." He looks at her over his shoulder. "You helped too."
"...Not enough."
Not really. She hadn't been strong enough, or fast enough, or just good enough, and it hurt.
(One day, no matter how far into the future she had to wait, Circe was going to pay.)
...
For a long moment, she thinks that's it. That he won't say anything else.
"I don't think any of it is ever enough when things like this happen" She startles in place, but he's already turning away. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth it."
It's not exactly comforting, but it's not an empty platitude either.
She thinks about it in the comfortable silence that follows and decides she likes that better. Before she can say anything back to him, though, he beats her to the punch.
"We have company."
Company?
She follows his gaze and squints.
There are two people flying towards them, circling around the city proper on their way closer.
Diana is, as always, easily recognizable, but it takes her a second longer to place the figure, and then she rears back in stunned surprise when she does.
"Woah."
"Superman." Mark murmurs, eyeing the approaching man of steel carefully, if not warily.
"What does he want?"
"Let's find out."
Donna frowns at the words, and then rears back in surprise when he moves.
Slowly, unsteadily, his feet rise off the ground. Donna feels her eyes widen when he continues rising, swaying erratically from side to side but growing surer and steadier with every passing second.
"You can fly."
Mark floats around to face her, and when he does, he's smiling for the first time since they'd met.
The expression is real, wide from end to end and equal parts euphoric and disbelieving, like he'd finally accomplished something he'd always wanted but never quite believed he'd manage.
It's just about blinding.
"I can. And it's about time that I did."
And then he turns on the spot and soars out into the distance with an honest to god laugh of glee.
Donna stares after him dumbly, and then she grins helplessly for no reason at all and flings herself into the air in pursuit
And that's a wrap on this arc. We're rapidly approaching canon start now, so fair warning: canon is not safe! The divergence can strike at any moment!
As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.
If you feel like it, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Firewillreign
In a dark, enclosed chamber, two exceptionally dangerous men - though each in vastly different ways - stared at one another across encrypted, featureless monitor screens.
"I take it everything went according to plan?" The first asks, leaning back in his chair and his fingers.
"Perfectly." The second answers, his voice distinctly rougher. "Wotan reports an absolute success and the evidence of Circe's rampage on Themyscira speaks for itself."
"A rousing success, then. And where exactly is the woman of the hour now?"
"Gone. Likely returned to her domain with her prize in tow."
"So I suppose we won't be inviting a new member to our cabal?
"Hardly. The witch-queen keeps to her own company and her priorities are too... narrow-minded for our purposes."
"I see. I'll admit, I do have... concerns. From what you've told me of her so-called prize-"
"It is no concern of ours."
"But it could rapidly become so, should she unleash it without taking the proper precautions. And from everything I've heard of her, she doesn't exactly strike me as the patient type."
"On the contrary - Circe is exceptionally patient. A necessary virtue for any immortal. Her business with the Amazons is simply... personal."
...
"I suppose you would know."
"Indeed."
"Then we leave her to her devices?"
"For now. The matter can be revisited if her games with the Helm and the Amazons prove to be problematic. Until then, we are better off not making an enemy of her."
"And if she decides to make an enemy of us?"
"That is what Klarion is for."
There's another longer pause
"I'll leave it to the experts, then." The first speaker says at last "And Wotan?"
"He did exactly as he was supposed to. Circe's attack was the perfect distraction, and he succeeded in absconding away with several very valuable artifacts from the Themysciran treasury, and one in particular you are already well aware of."
"Yes, the purple-healing ray." He snorts humourlessly. "A little on the nose, that, but really, I shouldn't complain - I'll be renaming it soon enough."
"How soon can you commence your work with it?
"As I already have several of my best Lex-corp research teams ready to take a crack at it. All off the books, of course. Dr. Desmond in particular is very eager to get his hands on it for Project Cadmus."
"That man is entirely too eager to demand new resources."
"Oh, very much so, but he's yet to fail to produce results and I have him well in hand."
"Very well. If there's nothing else?"
"One last small matter. I'll be needing Deathstroke's time for the short-term future. A few weeks at most. Unless you're opposed?"
"Not as of yet. For what particular reason?"
"Oh, nothing too strenuous, I assure you. I simply need him to complete some... subtle reconnaissance."
There's a final stretch of contemplative silence
"The boy, then"
"Yes. It's about time that the Light learned everything there is to know about Marcus Milton. Wouldn't you agree?"
...
"Agreed."
Halfway around the world, upon hearing Vandal Savage's implicit approval, Lex Luthor smiles.
...
A day after the attack on Themyscira, Donna descends into the patch of wild forest where Circe had unleashed the Hydra.
Or, well, what's left of it, which isn't very much at all beyond blackened earth and layers of ash thick enough that the largest of them goes up nearly to her knees. The smell of the smoldering remains of the wildlife overpowers the salty breeze from the ocean, and the sight of the damage is just miserable even if she's already learning to ignore it.
It's regrow, sooner or later. the Amazons had all the time in the world.
She turns her sight away from it and finds something else to stare at instead.
Mark is standing not too far away from her now, right at the very edge of a massive crater that hadn't been there the night before.
"I've been looking all over for you." She smiles when he shrugs and tilts his head in something that might be a half-hearted greeting. It's a sad effort, really, but she can still tell that there's something... looser to him than there was the days before.
Less tense and on edge, and more... tired.
But not necessarily in a bad way.
"I've been here."
"Remembering the fight?
"No."
Without looking at her, he sighs and angles his head up to stare at the sky. It's pretty early, and the morning sun has just started hitting the pearlescent sky above the island in just the right way to make it sparkle.
"I'm already done with that. I'm thinking about...everything else."
That's... mildly unhelpful, as far as answers go, but she's not about to complain.
Donna still doesn't know enough about him to guess at the context of 'everything else' and why he sounds so frustratedly exhausted about it, but she's familiar with having baggage and she knows better than to ask about someone else's.
"How did you beat the hydra?" She asks instead
He blinks and turns to stare at her.
"It regenerated." She's not sure about the 'cut of one head, two more take its place' thing she'd heard from the myths - and Hippolyta's stories, who'd been around when the original was alive and kicking - but she'd seen it regrow flesh and regenerate scales. That couldn't have been fun to deal with. "How'd you manage to get past that?"
"I blew up."
...
"What?"
He looks as surprised as she feels, as though he hadn't meant to tell her that, but he doesn't stop explaining
"I blew up. Released most of my energy in one burst and flash-fried it into nothingness. That's what took out the rest of the forest."
...
Slowly, she pans her eyes across the utter wasteland surrounding them.
… okay then
"Huh."
He grimaces "Yeah."
"That's-"
"Yes."
"Dude-"
"Believe me, I know."
He sounds so irritated she can't help snorting, even if she's still gaping on the inside at how outrageously ridiculous that story sounds.
She shakes her head to get rid of the last of the laughter and takes a few steps forward.
"So I heard you talked to Diana."
"She talked to me." He corrects dryly. "Talked at me, mostly."
Donna frowns.
"She didn't-"
"She was perfectly courteous." Mark rolls his neck side to side, expression distant. "She asked me who I was, and how I ended up on the island. A few other things."
And they must have all checked out, or he wouldn't be walking free right now. Diana must have used the Lasso, and Mark must not have minded.
Or maybe she hadn't.
It was almost impossible to lie to Diana even without the use of the Lasso. Donna still wasn't sure whether it was more magic crap or just the unbreakable poker face.
"That's it?"
He shrugs again.
"She was needed with the relief efforts and... the preparations.
Ah.
That.
Preparations. Funeral preparations.
She feels her mood plummet.
Crice's attack had done a number on the island... but that didn't mean a damned thing when compared to what she'd done to the amazons.
Most of them were warriors, but there was only ever one Hippolyta, one Diana, and most recently, one her. The rest of them weren't nearly at the same level, and it showed.
Last night, forty-three amazons died.
Thousands of years of life on Themyscira, irreplaceable people in every way, and suddenly they were just gone.
She swallows roughly at the reminder and looks to the ground, the lump in her throat refusing to budge.
A lot of them were her friends, and all of them were Diana's before they were hers.
If Mark notices - and he very likely does - he doesn't say a thing about it.
"She believed me. It's why I don't have a leash anymore. Not even Queen Hippolyta argued against it."
If that's an attempt to change the subject, it's a poor one, and they both know it.
Donna still tries to humor it - and really tries not to remember the fact that Hippolyta had lost an eye right in front of her
"I'm pretty sure you don't have a leash anymore because you helped protect the island." She says quietly
"... Maybe." He looks at her over his shoulder. "You helped too."
"...Not enough."
Not really. She hadn't been strong enough, or fast enough, or just good enough, and it hurt.
(One day, no matter how far into the future she had to wait, Circe was going to pay.)
...
For a long moment, she thinks that's it. That he won't say anything else.
"I don't think any of it is ever enough when things like this happen" She startles in place, but he's already turning away. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't worth it."
It's not exactly comforting, but it's not an empty platitude either.
She thinks about it in the comfortable silence that follows and decides she likes that better. Before she can say anything back to him, though, he beats her to the punch.
"We have company."
Company?
She follows his gaze and squints.
There are two people flying towards them, circling around the city proper on their way closer.
Diana is, as always, easily recognizable, but it takes her a second longer to place the figure, and then she rears back in stunned surprise when she does.
"Woah."
"Superman." Mark murmurs, eyeing the approaching man of steel carefully, if not warily.
"What does he want?"
"Let's find out."
Donna frowns at the words, and then rears back in surprise when he moves.
Slowly, unsteadily, his feet rise off the ground. Donna feels her eyes widen when he continues rising, swaying erratically from side to side but growing surer and steadier with every passing second.
"You can fly."
Mark floats around to face her, and when he does, he's smiling for the first time since they'd met.
The expression is real, wide from end to end and equal parts euphoric and disbelieving, like he'd finally accomplished something he'd always wanted but never quite believed he'd manage.
It's just about blinding.
"I can. And it's about time that I did."
And then he turns on the spot and soars out into the distance with an honest to god laugh of glee.
Donna stares after him dumbly, and then she grins helplessly for no reason at all and flings herself into the air in pursuit
...
And that's a wrap on this arc. We're rapidly approaching canon start now, so fair warning: canon is not safe! The divergence can strike at any moment!
As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.
If you feel like it, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Firewillreign
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