Authors Note: So I'm using the Justice League version of Hippolyta and the Wonder Woman 2009 versions of Artemis, Alexa and Persephone.
GAME! : FIND THE PERCY JACKSON REFERENCE!
IMPORTANT AUTHOR SHOUT OUT! : This story is shorter than it looks but I think you will like the reason. See Bottom of page to see plan for a season 3 story. Looking for assistance, see details at end of chapter!
SAFEEVENINNIGHTMARES
Diana, Princess of Themyscira, was excited this day.
This was a rare thing for Diana, Princess of Themyscira. Due to the unfortunate fact that Diana, Princess of Themyscira, was bored most days.
One would think that being the immortal princess of an eternal race of warrior women on an enchanted island would lead to a more interesting life.
But, this was not the case for Diana.
Over the previous 25 years Diana had sparred with every willing Amazon warrior, swam every inch of ocean in the ten miles surrounding their shores and had explored every nook and cranny that the eternally beautiful island had to offer.
All of these great accomplishments had been accomplished by the time she had turned 18. Now 7 years of perpetual boredom later, and the most exciting thing she had to look forward to, was her daily ride along the shore.
This winter day however was different. She rode Helen, her mighty blonde mare, along the white shores of Themyscira. The only noticeable difference between this particular ride and most of her perimeter patrols, was the large amount of flotsam that had washed onto the shore during the night.
A great storm that had passed by the island the previous night. Because of the islands blessed nature, the storm had passed quickly. But the remnants of the storm had washed back toward the isolated paradise island.
This almost never happened. Maybe once every few years, and it was one of the only events that gave Diana the trill of excitement that she almost never got. For when a storm from off the island brought storm debris onto the island, that meant that there might be treasures to be found, treasures from the most mysterious world.
The world of Man
When storms were strong enough to bring refuse and driftwood onto the Themysciran shores it almost always brought objects from Man's World. Diana had discovered the phenomenon when she was ten, she had discovered several objects along the shores, and had been fascinated with them. She had told her mother about the things that she had found. Hippolyta had been angry at first and had lectured Diana about the evils of man and the dangers of Man's World. But Hippolyta had allowed her to keep the objects in order to stay Diana's curiosity.
Diana kept everything that she found in a chest in her room. Over the years she had accumulated quite the collection of about two dozen objects of various sizes and shapes. Most seemed to be broken or damaged in some way or another, but she was still fascinated by them. She took care to clean them as best she could and try and figure out what their purpose may have been. She had tried asking a few of the other Amazons but had had no luck. Most would laugh in her face about her pointless inquires, while the few women that would help her had no idea what the items were.
That was where she was now, continuing her exciting if pointless collection. She searched the beaches for new treasures as she tried to understand the strange and mysterious world that no one would tell her anything about. Her curiosity never sated or explored, only reignited whenever a new discovery was swept onto the beach.
Her musings over her own oddness was interrupted when Helen suddenly reared back in alarm. Diana gripped the reins and pulled her mount back.
"Whoa Helen, Whoa, easy girl" she stroked the neck of her stead as she whispered comfort to the startled animal. "What's got you so . . ." her question trailed off as she looked down at the sandy ground.
It took her several moments to process exactly what she was looking at. She had never seen a real one before, only the pictures in ancient scrolls and the old and cracked amphoras that were displayed at the museum in the city. This was a sight unlike any she had ever seen.
Diana dismounted Helen with a comforting pat on her neck. All without taking her eyes off the thing that lay sprawled among the seaweed several feet in front of her. Unconscious and unmoving, but alive if the labored rising and falling motion of its chest was any indication.
She took a step forward, slowly. Much slower than she meant to. Part of her wanted to run toward it at top speed and examine it more closely. While another part of her wanted to fly back to the palace and scream about her terrifying find to her mother. But as if on their own accord, her feet took another slow step forward.
After several more shaky steps she was right next to it. By this point she had mostly recovered from the initial shock, and her rational mind was returning to her. Diana bent down onto her knees and reached toward it. She slowly pushed and pulled the seaweed from its body and turned it from his side to his back.
Looking at him up close, for it was in fact, a him, the remaining part of her mind that had still been screaming denials at her was soundly silenced.
The being lying unconscious at her knees was a Man.
Although she wasn't sure that was the right term for the person in front of her. He was small, very small. Not just short but small in build and weight. She wasn't positive, but she was pretty sure that the Man before her was a child. Given the fact that the only child Diana had ever seen had been herself, she had absolutely no experience in determining age.
The boy, since he was, coughed wetly, and Diana's instincts kicked in. Without thinking about it she placed her hands on his small, so very small, chest and made several compressions. She then tilted his head back gave him her own breath. During the second repetition of her actions the boy coughed hard and painfully, but much stronger than before. He turned onto his side and spit up a large amount of water from his lungs.
Diana released a breath that she had not realized she was holding. She watched as he continued to breathe hard in between the removal of water from his lungs. After a few minutes he seemed to have expunged as much liquid as he could manage. He curled into a ball and shivered in between his labored breathing.
She took the time to look at him more closely. His head was covered in night black hair. Cut short, with bangs that seemed just short enough to stay out of his eyes. His skin was a very light olive hue, but reddened along part of his face and neck, sunburn due to exposure, she thought absently. His clothing was like nothing she had ever seen. Dark loose leggings, a kind of cloak that covered his arms but only went to his waist of the same color, and a white shirt that had buttons up the middle. His feet were bare, most likely his shoes had been kicked off when he came to be in the water.
She would have examined him further but the child suddenly tensed, she stopped her visual exploration of his person. She was further distracted by the pained whining noises that came from him.
Something inside of her tightened painfully when she heard small sobs coming from the boy. Diana's body once again acted without her permission and she pulled the child into her arms. She brought his head to her chest and stroked his raven hair with one hand and rubbed his shaking back with her other hand. When she realized what she was doing. Diana was reminded of her mother, and how Hippolyta would do the same thing for Diana when she had been young and frightened by something.
The boy seemed to settle after a few more minutes. He mumbled something that she couldn't quite hear. She gently turned his head to face her. Tear tracks stained his half sunburned face. His eyes fluttered under thick lashes and opened slowly. Lovely ocean deep blue eyes stared up at her.
She could see the pain in his eyes and feel fever in his skin. His gaze was slightly vacant. She could tell that he looked at her with only partially seeing her. This boy was sick and hurting.
That same something inside her clenched again at that thought. She had to get this boy back to her mother and the healers. But she paused when she thought about the reactions of her sisters. The history of the Amazons and Man was a long, complicated and bloody one. How would her sisters, not to mention her own mother react when they discovered that a Man, boy she thought absently, had somehow come to be on Themys-
"Momma?" the voice was confused and weak, but held a small desperate hope that almost made her wince. She looked back into the cherub face of the child. His brows nit together in concentration, trying to clearly see her. She didn't know what to do so she did nothing for an entire minute before his face loosened. She could see the realization on his face.
"No… you're not… not her… she's… gone." His voice was thick with resignation as his body loosened. Sleep was starting to take him. His body was shutting down to rest as the tears finally stopped falling from his eyes.
That mysterious "instinct" as Diana was now starting to think of it snapped. She lifted the boy off her lap and into her arms. One hand under his knees, the other stretched behind his back so her hand rested on his forearm. To her enhanced strength, he weighed less than nothing. His head fell back into her chest and he unconsciously leaned into her warmth, his body still shivered despite the warm air of the island.
She glanced back toward Helen, but the horse had made her way inland and was contentedly grazing under a tree. Diana decided that she would send someone for the horse later. The ride would be much to bumpy for the child anyway.
Diana looked into the boy's face once more before she lifted them both into the sky.
SAFEEVENINNIGHTMARES
Queen Hippolyta walked through the open halls of the palace. Artemis followed on her right, while Artemis' younger sister Alexa, kept step behind her sister, Alexa's nose firmly immersed in the book in her hands.
"How goes Diana's training Artemis?" The queen often asked about her daughter. Artemis sometimes thought that in her queen's mind, Diana's wellbeing took precedence over anything else. "Her training goes just as well as when you asked me yesterday, my queen." Artemis chuckled "she is the best warrior on the island, and I haven't bested her in months".
The powers of the princess gave her an advantage yes, but Diana had told Artemis time and time again that she didn't want her abilities to be a crutch. As such, Diana often trained without using her powers. In order for her to train in combat as any of her sisters would. But her grace and strength gave her natural talent in the art of combat. Even without her powers the princess could best any warrior on the island.
The queen nodded, a small prideful smile pulled at her lips. She was quiet for a moment longer before speaking. "And how are her studies, Alexa?" the queen waited for an answer, but none came. The queen and Artemis stopped and turned back to their silent companion. Alexa had stopped walking several feet behind her companions. The low sunlight streaming onto the floor interrupted only by the columns that supported the ceiling. Alexa was staring out toward the ocean, past the city below and into the sky above the jungle canopy. Her book lowered to her side, as her widened in a shocked daze.
"Alexa? What is it" Artemis briskly jogged back to her sister. Alexa did not respond. Artemis followed her sister's line of site. It took her a moment, Alexa had always had sharper eyes than I do, yet she insists on wasting them on her books instead of something useful like archery, but she could eventually make out the flying form of Diana. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her queen also looking out toward her daughter.
Diana had gone out earlier to scout the beach after the storm. She had left on horseback, but now was flying back, at high speed no less. Diana did would not take a horse out and leave it unattended to fly back to the palace, not without a good reason.
Diana was closer now, and Artemis could see her much more clearly. Artemis could now see what had caused her sister such distress. The princess was holding something, no someone. And, the someone, whoever it was, was not an Amazon.
The queen was moving seconds before Artemis herself started to run. They both ran. A moment later she could hear Alexa's soft steps running after them. But it did not matter, the only thing that mattered was the safety of the Amazons. Artemis ran past her queen. She ran to the princess and the creature that the young girl had brought to the palace.
SAFEEVENINNIGHTMARES
Artemis entered the medical wing minutes after Diana had arrived. She had been lowering to boy onto the cot when Artemis came rushing in. "What is the meaning of this?!" she all but shouted. Artemis stomped into the room and pointed an accusing finger at the sleeping boy. "How did this filthy Man come to be on our island!?" Diana felt her face scowl and her hands clench at this, but Artemis continued, not noticing. "And why have you brought it to the palace?!"
Diana stood suddenly, moving between the boy and Artemis' line of site, she would realize later. She was about to speak, to yell, and demand Artemis leave so not to disturb the boy. When her mother's ever calm and commanding voice spoke first.
"That is quite enough, Artemis" her mother entered the room at a steady pace. Her blonde hair flowing under her crown and off her shoulders. Her white robes rippled along her body like a wind stirred river. Behind the queen, Alexa stood halfway through the door. Her fear of the unknown battling with her curiosity toward it.
"Even you could not call this young thing a Man, Artemis" Hippolyta walked to the child's bedside. "He is still very much a child"
This seemed to calm Artemis a bit, but she crossed her arms and scowled down at the boy. Hippolyta continued to watch the boy, an unreadable look on her face. While Alexa, who seemed to have gathered her courage enough to enter the room. She also watched the boy as he slept, a look of curiosity and inquiry on her face.
The child slept on, too exhausted from his ordeal to awake to notice such things.
Diana watched them watch the boy. She didn't make a sound for fear of breaking the silence that had fallen. A part of her was sure that as soon as someone said something, it would be an order to throw the boy back into the sea to drown, she suddenly felt violently nauseous at the idea. Her mother spoke, still quietly, with question, not anger in her voice.
"Where did you find him?" Diana let out a breath that she was holding. She then told her mother and her sisters the short and rather unexciting story of how she had found the child. By the time she had finished the story with the flight back, her mother had started to nod her head in thought. Alexa was mumbling quietly to herself about consulting her history books about great storms and lost sailors and something about Calypso. Artemis looked less angry but still annoyed. Like the boy's very presence made her dislike him.
Hippolyta seemed to have come to a decision. She turned to face Artemis and Alexa, though Diana knew that she was being addressed as well, "As soon as he is healed we will choose an ambassador to take him back to the mainlands." She turned back to Diana and gave her a meaningful look, though Diana did not quite understand what the meaning was. "This boy is under our care until he can be safely returned to the outside world." With that she walked out of the room. Artemis aimed another distrustful look toward the boy then followed the queen with a huff.
She looked back at the boy sleeping peacefully. For a moment neither her nor Alexa, who had stayed in the room, said anything. Diana broke the silence, "would bring me some salve for his skin please?" Alexa startled at the request, but then she smiled and said that she would. She left the room with a barely noticeable skip in her step, clutching her book to her chest. Obviously excited at the knowledge that could be gleaned from this new event.
Diana pulled a chair back to the bedside. She removed his over cloak and pulled the blankets over his fevered body. When she was done she brushed his damp bangs out from his eyes. He stirred at this, he shifted in his sleep and his eyes twitched in an attempt to open. Before settling down again. He muttered something under his breath, she almost didn't hear it, but Diana could just make it out.
"… where's… Bruce?" then he fell back into the bliss of sleep.
SAFEEVENINNIGHTMARES
Part 2 is on the way, so be patient. This time I promise I will just make them two parts and not mush them together like the last time, (that was a disaster wasn't it.)
OK so as for this season 3 thing I have planned. This is a simplified version of the episode guide that I am almost done with. I have almost the whole thing planned out, I just need some help writing the thing. When I say that I need help, I am looking for anyone that wants to help, it can be a lot of help or just once in a while. Once I get enough people interested I will start a private forum so we can discuss and brainstorm. I will offer "jobs" like writing specific scenes, beta reading, or just Brainstorming to anyone that wants to help.
The following is a rough episode guide, if you are interested in joining the story team please PM me so I can know who wants to help! Hope to hear from, well anyone really, soon. Until then,
So long, Farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu!