"The Amazon That Fell From Grace"
Characters: Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Akila
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or anything DC (I wish though)
Warning: Rated M for violence, blood, gore, and mentions of rape
Note: Not historically/comic accurate, I tweaked WW history a bit but oh well, it's what an AU is right? lol
Chapter One
When she was a child, she believed in glory.
At night, she used to dream of the glimmering golden armor of the Amazons hugging her milk colored body, her rough calloused hands gripping the smooth wood of her spear, and the smell of the blood of her enemies stinging her nose.
She dreamt of many crowds in Athens cheering and praising her name and her Amazon sisters raising her off the ground and calling her the best among them. Their champion. Their leader.
She believed she was destined to be their queen, that her birth demands it. Her mother wouldn't expect anything less. She would be the most glorious warrior indeed.
But those were dreams, a far cry from the reality.
She is merely just a small girl with no money and no status. Just another child from the street with a name not to remember. Useless.
There was a time when she remembered Theseus's men parading through Athens, abusing the Amazons who were entrusted to bring men peace and love. Using them beyond what they were destined to do by enslaving the women to please their sexual desires.
She remembered her mother telling her to hide in the shadows, and if she was found, she must run with the speed of Hermes.
The guidance was forever engraved in her mind when she found her mother dead in the street, legs spread wide apart, a tear running down her cheek, and a knife in her chest.
She remembers sobbing and running to kneel next to her mother. She brings her dead mother close to her, wrapping her with her small, frail arms and prays to the Gods to bring her back to life.
She doesn't hear the soldiers who raped and killed her mother coming to her over her own cries and the great pounding in her head.
She feels their filthy hands grabbing her and pulling her away from her mother. She screams and kicks and curses at them.
They tell her to be quiet unless she wants to end up like her mother.
The fire in the girl ignites and the Underworld can be seen in her eyes. She bites the soldier's hand and runs. She runs with the speed of Hermes. She runs and runs away.
But fate had other plans. An arrow shot by one of Theseus's men chased the girl and landed on the back of her thigh. She falls to the ground crying in pain.
She looks up and sees the drunken monsters that carried bows, swords, and hate. She spits at them and says they can meet Hades.
The next thing she knows, the side of her head kisses the ground and she sees black.
She wakes up to find her hands and legs chained together in a boat that she assumes is one of Theseus's. She sees a small pool of blood on the ground where her head was and she almost throws up.
She tries wiggling out of the knots but gives up a while later. She was hungry, tired, exhausted, and cold.
She weakly looks around her surroundings and finds a woman around the same age as her mother a few feet away. She was chained too and in a fetal position, shivering from the cold too.
She slowly crawls and moves her body closer to her.
"Hello?" she asks weakly to the woman.
The woman's eyes slowly fluttered open. They were blood red from exhaustion.
She gave a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Hello, my child."
"How long have you been here?" the girl asked softly.
"Not long. I await for my sisters to bring me and these other women safe from these filthy animals," the woman replies in a small hiss. She nods her head to the other side of the boat and the girl notices all the other women. All in the same situation, chained and shivering.
What she remembers next was a blur. Waves of women on horses, swords clashing, arrows flying, and screams. So many screams. Battle screams, pain filled screams, innocent ones too. But they blurred together too.
She feels being pushed and pulled in the battle. She sees the woman that was next to her alongside what seemed to be a goddess. She was a golden haired heroine with a commanding voice and a sword that shined bright without the sun. The girl concluded that she was the queen.
She suddenly feels her body leaving the ground as one of Theseus's soldiers picked her up in a frightened craze, demanding the Amazons to let them go or they would kill her.
The small threat was resolved however as an arrow whizzed from behind and went through his skull like butter.
The girl screamed as she fell but was caught by a girl with frizzy locks and hazelnut colored skin. Her honey colored eyes pooled into the girl's emerald green ones but looked down at the girl's chains a moment later. She then unsheathed a sword laying around on the ship's floor and swung hard to break the emerald eye's bindings.
"Come with me," was all the hazelnut girl said as she grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the feud.
The girls ran into a corner of an alley and crouched as they hid behind old produce crates, waiting until the battle was over. The darker skinned girl turned and saw that the other girl's body was violently shaking from the cold.
"Here." She quickly took off her linen hood and wrapped the shivering girl with it.
The girl nodded a thanks.
The other girl stood to peer over the crates they hid behind while saying, "You and I are going to stick together if we're going to survive living in Athens without being tainted by Theseus's men. If we're lucky, we might be able to convince the Amazons to take us in."
She turns back and kneels in front of the linen covered girl. "But first, I think I need to know your name."
"Artemis," the girl replies, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. "What is yours?"
She looked at Artemis with her brown, suntouched eyes. She gave a small, but genuine small.
She said her name was Akila.
A/N: Well hello! Thanks for reading! This fic is a series that I was really excited to make and after months of brainstorming, drafting, all nighters, hair pulling, and mental breakdowns, I finally knew what I wanted and finished the first chapter. Admittedly, it's not much but I'm really trying hard to make these chapters long, but interesting for you guys! I have a lot of ideas but it's tough putting them into coherent words. As always, please review, share, and constructive criticism is appreciated! :))
