“A Stone’s Throw”
The Pale Wall, Now: “What have I done?” Diana repeated shell shocked that she should be the reason for the release of those monsters and not Circe. Diana, filled with a mixture of guilt, rage, and self-depreciation, marched over to Circe, pulling the weeping witch from her position on the ground and to her feet by the scruff of her tunic. “How did this happen?” Diana questioned the weeping woman, her salty tears mixing with the many scratches and scrapes that scoured their way over her face. Her lip was split open, oozing dark blood onto Diana’s spotless hands. “…The Pale...Wall…” she said simply. Diana grew frustrated almost immediately. How was she supposed to know what this Pale Wall was? She backhanded Circe across the face, causing her to yelp and look defeated into Diana’s eyes. “You released everything, Diana. Everything that was ever forgotten.” Olympus, Two Days Ago: Mnemosyne had first noticed the bloated feeling at the back of her head several hours ago. If felt as though her brain might be growing in size and girth, pushing itself against the bone wall Zeus had created for her physical form. Hephaestus has commented that her pupils also looked dilated and asked if there was anything wrong. She had let him know that she felt a little under the weather, but millennia of boredom could do that to a person. Uncharacteristically, Mnemosyne couldn’t remember the last time she had felt unwell. She was sure it had happened before; after all battles and memories go almost hand in hand. Memories become perverted over the years, exaggerated and sometimes the greatest battle for a warrior was simply remembering a better time. Now she sat at one of the many waterfalls on Olympus running her hands through the sparkling water. Her mind cast elsewhere for the briefest moments before violently being forced downwards. She hit the surface of the water, bubbles exploding from her screaming mouth. She felt the mystical seals being torn asunder, the hinges on the doors that Hephaestus and the other gods had installed creaking, screaming for release from their ever-increasing tension. Pulling her drenched body from the water, Zeus held Mnemosyne by the shoulders, pulling her head back and staring down at her gasping face. “Mnemosyne. Speak? What ails you?” “The Memory, Sky Father. The Memories are coming.” As he searched his wizened mind for the answer to her prophetic riddle, her eyes exploded with divine energy, throwing Zeus off his feet and onto his back. Mnemosyne screamed the scream of Birth, as the Memory forcibly exploded from her Eyes. Her pupils dilated to allow the birthing of everything she ever locked away, every idea and every monster. The Memory was but a memory, and everything forgotten was remembered again. The Pale Wall, Now: “They’re all over the world, Diana,” Circe hissed, trying to pull her bloodied body from the floor. She spat some blood and spittle onto the marble floor and scrambled her hands on the now slick surface. Diana had dropped her a few seconds after picking her up, and she was still feeling the hot ache of the hard floor in her bones. Huddled in a corner were the Cheetahs. They had seen things that they should never have seen. Whilst they purported to be Felids in name and nature, they were nothing more than Anthropomorphs. Their fingers and minds had been touched by a true felid mind, a Tiger God, something that tore through their minds like butter. Something that realigned their ideals to the way they should be; they’re humans, they hunt like humans, they think and speak and act like humans. They’re not cats, and now, sat huddled in a pool of their tears and urine and blood they truly saw what they were. Sad, Pathetic Human beings. “All over; I see it now. A Dragon perched on the statute of Jesus in Rio, a Crocodile the size of an Elephant swimming down the Nile. I see the Hippogriffs diving through the waves of the ocean, occupied by Kraken and Mermaids and any number of arcane and paranormal Monsters. I feel the titans renew their connections to the Earth, and this is all because of you Diana,” Circe hissed through gritted and blood spattered teeth. Diana paused for a moment; she was not as wounded as Circe, nor as drained, but for her guilt; it weighed on her more than she had felt on her shoulders in all of her life. She felt as though she was resting the Earth on her back and it was rolling down to the ground despite her grip and her dedication. She had brought a disaster home to roost and there was nothing she could do. The Ocean: Naiad, element of the oceans, mistress of the Clear felt something in her oceans change. The Balance was different, eddies and waves formed where there should be none, and the presence of hundreds of new organisms found their way into her form. With the help of her Liquid Consciousness she was able to maintain a conscious connection to every droplet of water in the ocean, on land or in the sky, down to the molecules of Aqueous humour that made up the composition of human eyes. Her mind reeled. While she was not connected to everything at once, she was connected enough to realize that there was something old swelling underneath her, inside her body. Darkness that grew and expanded, popping spores of itself into the ocean and into streams of the world. Something evil was brewing within her, and there was little she could do to prevent it. Olympus, Now: “Mother?” Diana’s eyes snapped open. She remembered feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders and then blacking out for a moment. Now she stood at the foot of the Mountain, at the very base of the Temple. Hippolyta stood in silence, watching her Daughter. She was bound and chained to the rocks, her arms pulling the chains taught at her wrists. Her silver bracers were gone, and so was her Wonder Woman costume. She was dressed in a toga, a dirty one at that. She looked down at her feet with indignity as her hair clung to her face, pressed against it by the high winds that seemed only to buffet her. Her attention was torn away from her mothers silent looks of disappointment and betrayal as Zeus stormed down the steps of the Temple, Athena and Ares following after him. In the background Diana could see Poseidon and Hades, two brothers cloaked in Shadow. The Greek’s Triumvirate. Zeus stood before Diana and crossed his enormous arms. “Do you know what you have done, Diana of Themyiscara?” “My Lord. I...” “SILENCE!” Lightning exploded into the ground around her and the ground shook with his rage, his white beard standing on end as the atmosphere became electrified. He leaned down to level his eyes with Diana’s and grasped the top of her head. “LOOK!” Diana’s mind was bombarded with images. The vessels in her nose exploded, spraying crimson down her face in great spatters. In Norway, she saw a heavily armoured Artemis desperately battling Frost Giants, their colossal clubs vaporising snow as they smashed around her, driving her to quick, darting movements. Her sword was ineffectual and her movements barely giving her any reaction time. In South Africa, a rhino the size of a mountain was testing its strength against Atlas and Samson, their giant hands wrapped around the Horn as the beast’s padded feet drove new waterways and crevasses into the Earth. Their muscles ached and sweat beaded on their foreheads as the beast simply snorted and continued to push, intent to test its strength until one of them fell. In the skies, the Griffins screeched their death screams as Hermes brought his Caduceus down against their bodies, twisting in the air to avoid their talons raking across his flesh. Even a God can be beaten when out-numbered and over powered. “Your title is stripped, Diana,” Zeus said simply, pulling away from her and moving back to the other deities. None of whom said a thing. “Lord Zeus, PLEASE! I beg of you, I had no idea that this would happen. I sought to simply change what I considered the Fates to have conspired to do. I thought that Circe was to imprison, rather than unleash, to desecrate and not preserve!” “CHANGE WHAT THE FATES HAVE DEIMED?” Zeus bellowed, his rant stayed by the hand of Athena, pressed silently to his chest. “Diana, you acted with arrogance and without sense. You charged head long into battle because you covet the effect it has on you. You seek it out actively. This is not why you were created.” “My Creation was to be a message bearer! I still bear that message!” Diana screamed, her voice crackling with fear and emotion. Her words had the depth of the ocean but rang hollow to all but herself. She was deluded. “Your message is twisted, Diana,” her mother said, stepping before her and dropping the broken Bracers at her feet. “You fight for the sake of it now; you seek out violence and flaunt your powers and skills. You were supposed to be an ambassador of Greece, of our Island and of your Mother. You were to honour us and further us. Instead you pervert us like some Spartan Whore.” “…that’s a BIT strong, isn’t it?” Ares mumbled to Hades, who cracked a smile at the comment. Diana felt her eyes well with emotion. “Mother…” she began, but the words would not come. She was unable to express what she wished to say. Her mother was right. She was nothing but a twisted version of what she stood for. Politics was about words and what was right, not about the might of your fist, or the twist of your body. “…I am sorry,” she said dejectedly. “Not as sorry as I am,” a voice came from the edge of the cloud, a single red boot landing on the soft, buoyant cloud. “I had thought the Greek Gods great scholars and philosophers, not angry barbarians.” “WHO DARES?” Zeus stood up violently, thunder and lightning crashing around his head, as a great wind blew the strangers red cape behind him. “Clark?” Diana fumbled, looking away from him. She didn’t want to see him in the state she was in. Broken. Defeated. Hurting. “What right have you in the affairs of Gods, mortal?” “Actually, Zeus, I invited him here.” Ares stepped forwards, removing his Helmet and throwing it towards Superman. “For what purpose, Ares?” “To defend Diana, of Course,” he said with a wry grin written over his features. “She deserves a chance. After all, everyone makes mistakes, right?” he shrugged as he looked directly at Zeus, the king of the Gods anger growing, as the winds around them picked up, droplets of rain pinging against the God’s respective armours. “Speak your peace, mortal, and know this: your words alone will not be enough to stay my hand.” Zeus sat down on his throne again whilst Superman composed himself. Diana stared for what seemed like hours. Clark put forward his point again and again. “Diana is a powerful force for good in our world…” “Diana is one the purest and most intelligence people I’ve ever met...” “Wonder Woman is a symbol to women and men everywhere for equality and righteousness…” His words became a blur as the time they spoke and argued back and forth stretched on to infinity. Her head fell as the rain poured down on them all. She was drenched, cold and defeated. Her braces lay in front of her, her ceremonial garb stripped from her body and, most importantly, the things that gave her such strength, the love of her mother, the support of the Gods, were also absent from her. She lacked it all and inside her a gaping maw of pain and angst and knotted fury at Circe and her own impetuousness. She could feel the sting of Zeus’ words against Superman from where she knelt. She could feel the rage of the gods and the subtle smouldering embers that burnt underneath. “Zeus…Please…listen to reason…” “I have heard enough, mortal. Diana of Themyiscara has been judged, though take heart that I am a generous God.” Diana’s head snapped up, perhaps there was a chance yet. Maybe Clark’s words had gotten through to Zeus after all. Maybe her hope to be redeemed could still exist, maybe… “Diana of Themyiscara,” Zeus began. Diana steadied herself on one knee, her head bowed before Zeus. “My Lord.” “As I said, I am a generous God; I grant you the opportunity to redeem yourself. I offer you the chance to defeat all the monsters and memories that you have released into our world, to try to undo the damage you have wrought upon the Gods as well as the Mortals.” “Lord Zeus…Than--” “Hold your words, Child. I know you are grateful, but there is more to this than I have said. You have but three days to clear the world of these monsters, during this time you will be without your mantle as Wonder Woman, without the luxuries you have come to rely on, such as your costume, your lasso, your abilities. You are to face them as a mortal would, to truly teach you humility and fear. You are to be a mortal in your quest, Diana, as Jason began his, as Hercules undertook his own trials.” The rest of the Gods remained silent; the only sound was the soft, almost silent weeping from Diana. “You have forsaken me,” she whispered to herself, in a tone so low, only Clark could hear it. Moving to her side, he crouched down, draping his cape over her back to try and keep her warm from the drenching she’d received only moments before. “Diana…I am sorry,” he said to her, his sincerity and grief as tangible as her own. Diana loved Clark on levels she sometimes couldn’t describe. Though they were always destined to be true friends, they would never complicate things beyond that. “You know your task, Diana. Now, be gone!” The thunder clapped around them both. Superman’s eyes closed, but Diana kept her eyes open. She watched as her Mother spurned her, refusing to look at her Daughter, who had brought such shame to her people. She watched as the King of Gods smiled with contempt towards her, and as the other deities, save Ares, turned from her. Ares looked uncharacteristically disappointed, not with Diana, but with the verdict. For him, Diana was a driving force, a foil for him to spar with. Now, with that gone, he wasn’t sure what he had to plan for, given that he was more subtle and arguably one of the most intelligent Gods. As Clark got up, the sun beating down on his drenched face, Diana simply sat where she was, her eyes tightly closed despite the heat and warmth of the Mediterranean sun. “We’ll help you, Diana.” “No, Clark. This is my battle and mine alone. My task is for my redemption, not for anyone else’s.” “Diana, please, you can’t shoulder this burden alone.” “You’re wrong there, Clark.” Diana got to her feet slowly, determination written on her face, the dejected, desperate feelings sliding to the wayside for the moment whilst she contemplates the task at hand. “I can do this, and I need to do this alone, to prove to the Gods that I am worthy of my title as Wonder Woman again.” She touched his chest gingerly with her hand and stared into his eyes. “Do not worry, Clark. I can handle this as Diana Prince, or as Wonder Woman. I am trained in battle and I am trained to look after myself. I will complete this task and return to the JLA.” Clark nodded curtly, before taking off into the sky. For some reason, while he trusted Diana implicitly, he got the impression that she would not be returning to the JLA, that in those few moments, that would be the last contact he had with Diana for a while. He hoped not. To Be Continued... 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