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#11
MAY 10 |
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“Keeper of Mythology”
Diana stared out across the lake before her. Markovia was a beautiful land. Despite what many had said about The Baltic areas of the world, it was as breath taking as any other part of the Earth. Huge sweeping landscapes, that moved from form to form, igneous rock to scrub land, into lakes. Ecology taking form and function, and taking away from the practicalities of life, creating a tableau of nature before her, to constantly catching her eye with something new and breath-taking.
It was only a matter of days, that she'd been with Brion, romantically as well as physically, and already she was feeling and reaping the benefits of intimacy and contact with another human being, at least emotionally. Whilst Diana had never been human in the strictest sense, she was always, at her core, a human. With a sigh and a heavy heart, Diana turned away from the scene of beauty before her, right into the chest of the tallest woman she'd ever seen in her life.
Diana double took the woman, before stepped back and preparing to fight, raising her fists, as a dull grumble shook through the earth below her, as if it were reassuring her that it was still there, still waiting to fight for her.
“Whoa, whoa. Y'Wanna calm it down there?” The blonde woman said, looking down at Diana. Despite her stature, Diana was dwarfed by this woman. She looked down from her vantage point and offered a fairly innocuous smile.
“Calm down? Who are you?” Diana asked, maintaining her pose. The woman stood before her, hands on her hips, and a smile spreading over her face.
“I guess I should probably thank you before I tell ya who I am,” She said, offering a mock bow to Diana, before pulling herself up. She tilted her cowboy hat in thanks as well before standing up straight again.
“A lot of posturing,” Diana said simply, not dropping her guard for a moment. As the woman spoke, the wrists had slowly been growing bracelets of granite and flint. A shiny surface developing on her fore-arm that reminded her of her old self.
“My name is Fury, Diana. I'm the one who's become ‘The Keeper of Mythology’...Woooooo,” She offered a jokey smile, before waving her hands around like a ghost, “All spooky like? Sense of humour? Apparently not.”
Diana said nothing. Shock had taken her voice from her. Apparently, her bad life choices, her arrogance, had a positive experience on some people. Although she found that a difficult concept to grasp herself. How could being banished from Olympus and have everything she ever loved taken away from her have benefited someone?
“Fury?” Diana said
“Yeah, well, that's a name I chose for myself. I work with a couple of other women who seem to have benefitted from your little mythological fall-out,” Fury continued, a smile on her face.
“There are more of you?” Diana asked, stunned almost into silence.
“Yeah, only a few more. We're all in this together, I am the Keeper of the Mythology, but we keep a sort of...database of the Myths and legends and all the monster's that're running around. Me'n Pandora go and round 'em up, and make sure they don't end up doing a murder, and the Librarian and Scryer are the ones who're on the watch out and maintaining the information. We got ourselves a little military operation going on,” Fury beamed at Diana, who still remained as stoic and silent as before.
“Y'could seem a bit happier,” Fury said, Diana's face remained the same as she stepped forwards a little.
“I would be happier, were it not for the knowledge that the reason mythology is out there and able to kill people was because of my own ineptitude,” Diana let her head drop, but raised it slightly to the sound of Fury tutting at her.
“Get a grip, love. You need to sort it out, we're not all here to mope around and pretend that the world is resting on our shoulders,”
“The world is...I can feel it's orbit...” Diana said, her voice distant as she became aware of it.
“Exactly. You can feel it's orbit. Why doesn't that excite you?”
“What?” Diana asked suddenly.
“You can feel the planet turning, right? All the little tectonic plates and stuff under our feet. You can feel it and talk to it...Why doesn't that excite you?” Fury asked, genuine annoyance in her voice.
“Because...”
“Because you made a cock-up, right? You made a mistake and it cost you your old life. You know what I was in my old life? I was a fucking Administrator. Now I leave the place I live and punch Minotaurs in the face. If I had a propensity to lez off, I'd be all over you for giving my life more meaning than stroking my cats and watching re-runs on GOLD,” She winked at Diana who seemed to be made somewhat uneasy by Fury's comments.
“So, cheer up, right? You have power beyond anyone else's understanding. You've given me and my three friends a reason to be alive, and to keep going. I think that's pretty good for a mistake, right?” Fury said with another beaming smile. Diana took a moment to reflect on what Fury had said. Maybe this wasn't the beginning of the end for her, maybe this was just a protracted beginning.
“Cheer...up?” Diana looked up at Fury again who sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“Yeah, Cheer up, Diana. Look, you did a mistake. That's fine. Everyone makes mistakes, I'm sure Zeus did when he threw it up some Mortal women and made all these Demi-Gods,” Fury said, scratching her arm gently.
“Threw it up?” Diana asked after a moment of paused concentration.
“Yeah, had sex with them. Get with the times, Diana,” Fury said, examining the ends of her fingers and sighing again.
“Look, the point is, you need to stop wallowing in this little pit of self-hate you've got going on. It's not healthy, not that I am sure that health applies to you anymore,” Fury said, furrowing her brows.
Diana sighed and looked up at her.
“How do you do it?” Diana asked, sitting down slowly, Fury following her lead, as they looked out across the Lake.
“Do what?” Fury asked, “How do I capture Mythology? Well, I'll tell you since you asked so nicely,”
Diana opened her mouth to respond, that wasn't her question, but Fury continued anyway, a smile on her face.
“I use a mixture, Diana. It's something that I hope you'd have thought of if you weren't so consumed with grief and you know, general guilt for being so over-confident and ineptitude,” She shot Diana sideways glance.
“I use magic, and nature and above all, belief. I'm not like Pandora, I don't capture the Mythology within myself and use my body as cage. I'm not like that. I use whatever is around me and I make it into a belief font. Anything can believe, Diana, I am sure you know that. I'm sure the ground beneath us believes in you – Well, that same logic can be applied to literally anything. I imprisoned some Electricity elves yesterday in a Wireless hotspot in a McDonalds. You don't really get much more random and mundane than that, do you?” She finished, waiting for Diana's reaction.
“I don't know what to say,” She finally responded, looking at the ground below her.
“Say nothing, I'm here to say Thanks, Diana. Nothing more than that,”
“Alec?” Abigail asked, looking around the gloomy swamp. Firefly's flitted around her, her arm raised and waving to try and shoo the annoying insects away from her body.
Her husband, the almost cosmic entity known as Swamp Thing had been here minutes ago. Now he was gone, and she was alone. Not that she minded. Everything in the swamp knew better than to interfere with the wife of the Swamp God. Not even the Mosquito's touched her fair skin.
“Where has that infuriating man gone now..” She said to herself, putting her hands on her hips, “I swear, if he's off with Constantine again, I am going to murder him,” She smiled to herself and shook her head, as twigs broke behind her.
“I'd imagine that murder isn't quite that high on your mind, Abigail,” A huge hand shot through the darkness, wrapping her fingers around Abigail's tiny form, lifting her from the dwindling light towards her vicious face.
“Time for you to go and meet your husband, Abigail,” A loud, feminine voice spoke, deeper than normal. Her huge, deep breaths sucked Abigail's white and grey tinged hair back and forth with every exhalation. She could barely breathe when the huge mouth was pushing the Carbon Dioxide out in her direction.
“Who are you? What are you?” She asked, as the hand lifted her higher, and threw itself down, the motion and sudden stopping of her arc knocking Abigail out and giving her whiplash.
“I represent some...global concerns,” The voice said, stomping out of the swamp, and looking down at her feet with a tut.
“Messy, messy work.” She said frowning at her dirtied shoes.
“Did Maya send you?” Diana said after a long pause, as the pair watched a pair of grey geese land in the lake and swing around each other in tight circles. Nature had always amazed her, but now, understanding how interlinked and beautiful it was, it amazed her even more. It was the biggest puzzle in the universe.
“No, I don't even know who Maya is,” Fury said, turning to look at Diana.
“She is the Earth mother, the one who stands above all the Parliaments. She is the life of the planet Earth,” Diana responded, fiddling with her fingers as she traced the cracks down them.
“No, I don't come from here, and before you ask, I don't come from any God's either. One of them approached us, but we told him where to go,” Fury nodded in memory.
“Which God?” Diana asked.
“Tall guy, blonde hair, big purple armour with a large helmet. Think he said he was Ares, or something but you guys change so often..”
“Ares?!” Diana exclaimed, grabbing hold of Fury's shoulders and shaking her.
“What did he want? How long ago?” Diana practically screeched. Fury flexed her muscles, knocking Diana off her. The tall woman got to her feet, as Diana scrambled to hers.
“You need to find some manners, Princess. Figured they'd have bred you betterer than that,” Fury said. Diana winced at her use of the word “Betterer”.
“Please, Fury, this is important,” Diana implored, almost in a begging position as she leaned forwards.
“Everything's important, Diana,” The Fury said, beginning to walk away from Diana.
“Look, I came here to make friends with you, not have you treat me like some servant. We're mopping up your mess after all,” Fury spat at Diana. The former Wonder Woman's face dropped into a scowl, as she stomped after the tall blonde.
“You said that you were thankful for your new role in the world, Fury. How can you say such a thing only to throw it back in a moment of anger,” Diana retorted, which caused the Fury to turn around.
“I am grateful for a new role, I just wish it wasn't the role that required me to run around after your messes. I'm not your housekeeper,” Fury responded, pumping herself up, her muscles tense and her face full of anger.
“I do not need a caretaker, Fury,” Diana replied, matching the Fury's disposition, as crags of rock jutted from her arms, forming tiny plates of armour.
“You expecting a fight?” Fury said, nodding her head towards Diana's arms. Diana looked down at her body, as the magma veins that were always visible through the cracks of her body slowly faded, as plates of armour snapped into place.
“No, I...”
“I'm not here to fight you, Diana,” Fury's voice suddenly became full of sorrow and regret.
“Please, Fury, I do not want...”
“Forget it, we're done here, Diana. I just wanted to let you know that we have your back, and we have your problems down so you can concentrate on whatever it is that you're concentrating on now instead of mopping up your problems,” Fury continued, Diana reached out for her, but the blonde giant moved quickly, Diana's hand falling on nothing.
“Please, Fury. I made a mistake...My anger, I cannot always control it in this form...I feel as though I am...loosing myself,” Diana admitted. Fury's face hardened, as she continued to back-peddle away from Diana.
“Honesty isn't going to make this better, Diana,” Fury said, waving a hand before her.
“Fury, please, you have to understand...”
“I understand perfectly,” Fury continued, “You're broken. Completely and utterly. The reason you can't get out of your funk is because you simply just don't have anything of your old self left to do it. You're angry, and bitter and quick to violence, you're expecting the whole world to come down around you because you're not who you used to be,”
“Fury...That's not fair that isn't...”
“It isn't fair, but it is the truth, Diana. You can't handle change. You've always been a beautiful goddess, balancing between War and Peace. People love you, your heart was always full, and your powers never failed you. You've always been Wonder Woman, even when you didn't hold the title anymore,” Fury continued, as Diana felt her heart drop and crack. Emotion welled within her, but she didn't know how to release it any more.
“Fury, Please...” Magma welled at her eyelids, as it slid down her face, sending tendrils of steam into the air, the tears turning black the further they slid down her face, until they solidified as tiny, rounded stalactites on her jawline.
“Now you've changed on the outside as well as the inside, you can't cope. You're not Wonder Woman anymore in title and body. You're a piece of rock with the empty soul of a woman in it. You're shattered into a thousand pieces, Diana, and you can't do anything without becoming a whole again,”
“Please...” Diana begged pathetically, tears streaming down her face, as her frown and sorrow broke it, cracks and splinters of rock sliding up and down her face as her form became less and less malleable in her grief. She pulled her arms in, cracks forming down her chest.
“Please what, Diana? This needs to be said. You need to know, Brion isn't going to tell you, he's too taken with the new you and your affections on him, and your friends? You don't have any anymore, do you? You've distanced yourself from your friends in the League, and you're exiled from your home,” Fury's own compassion and empathy broke through as her tone became softer and slower.
“Please...Stop,” Diana said, her arms folding away from her chest. The armour plating had fallen away, leaving a stripped down Diana. Magma poured from her open hole onto the floor below, as though someone had taken her inside outs.
Within her chest cavity, her stone heart lay shattered, four segments laying as far apart from each other, suspended by the tubing that connected it to the rest of her body, a remnant of her old body. It formed no function other than a symbolic one.
“As soon as you face this, Diana, the sooner you can start moving forwards with your life. You can become you again,” Fury said, a doorway opening up to the left of her.
“Please, Fury...How can you say this and leave me? I am broken, broken beyond my own knowledge of what to do. I can't save myself when I do not even know what is wrong, how do you cure a broken heart?” Diana asked, looking up with a pathetic face, hardly anything like her former self.
“You can start, Diana, by trying to fix your heart. Fix yourself. You know you're bitter and angry and violent, but you need to try and understand – You can't get better without trying. You have to try and make yourself better,”
“I don't even know where to begin...”
“You can begin, Diana, but not acting like this. You're Wonder Woman. You're supposed to be tough and at peace and a vision of beauty. You're barely a shadow of yourself. You can barely form yourself, at the moment. The cracks are more than just a physical misunderstanding of Rock. The cracks are you,” Fury responded, anger creeping back into her voice. Diana stared down at her chest cavity, the cracks that showed the magma creeping down her arms, and across her face once again.
“I am trying to understand...” Diana said. The Fury just shook her head.
“Try harder, Diana. You're not going to help yourself but kneeling there and weeping over how broken you are. Earth and Magma are more than just tools for destruction, Diana. You need to remember that,” Fury said finally, as she walked through the portal, which popped and fizzled out of existence, leaving Diana on her knees, staring at her spilled innards.
“Please...Modo...Just kill me,” Maya said, looking up at the form of the oil covered woman before her. The white teeth underneath smile, as she knelt down and cupped Maya's face.
“Maya...Maya...Maya...” Modo kissed her passionately, before kicking her in the stomach.
She clicked her fingers and pointed towards the ceiling, where some of her underlings stood on a metal platform.
“Dr. Poison. Get her, I need her prepared for the most disturbing surgery of her life,” Modo said, smiling to herself and turning back to the beaten form of Maya.
“These beatings are keeping you from connecting to your little pet elementals, Maya. We're going to do more than just disconnect you, Maya. We're going to corrupt your planet. Dr. Poison is an elemental of my own – She's my nuclear waste expert. Guess what we're going to put in your womb?” Modo's smile became more and more twisted, as the black oil dripped from her fingertips into Maya's open eyes.
“Maya, we're going to break the Earth by breaking you. As soon as nature is dead, then I can take over. Industry, the new way forwards. We will remake Earth as an industrial planet and travel the universe, breaking and raping the other planets like you – Because you're disgusting. You're old, pointless. Obso-fucking-lete,”
She spat onto Maya's face and punched her in the jaw, staring down at the black eyes, and split lip of the woman who was the embodiment of the entire planet.
“Then I am going to fucking murder you in the most horrific way possible, Maya. Doesn't that sound like fun?”
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To Be Continued...
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