Chapter 2 – Picking up the pieces, Part 1
"Thanks for coming miterá." Diana said as she gave the case with the ceremonial armor back to her mother.
"I could not do otherwise kóri, regardless of you being in exile or not." Hippolyta replied as she took the case from her daughter and placed it on the side of the sofa.
After Superman's death, Hawkgirl had gone to Themyscira (and was nearly attacked again until Hippolyta intervened) and told the Amazon Queen what had transpired. Hippolyta was shocked by this – since she had seen the Man of Steel fighting Faust and Hades alongside his allies – but when Shayera told the former how Diana was distraught over her friend's death and she needed her mother, that clinched it for Hippolyta and she decided to go see her daughter.
It took some time, but once Hippolyta got to Boston and found Diana's apartment, what she saw made even her own heart break. For even though Diana was trying to be strong, one look on her face told the Queen that her little sun and stars was about to crack, so as soon as she made her presence known Diana then went over to her mother and cried as she had never cried before.
Fortunately for the exiled princess, her mother was there to lend that motherly shoulder.
Once Diana was able to come back to her senses, Hippolyta gave her daughter the ceremonial armor she had brought with her from Themyscira for Diana to wear at Superman's funeral, which the princess gladly accepted.
During the funeral Diana was able to keep herself composed as best she could, but as she saw how Lois Lane was throughout the whole thing and the latter's outburst toward Lex Luthor…Diana didn't blame the reporter one bit.
"Your friend will be honored among the Amazons." Hippolyta said sincerely.
"Thank you mother." Diana replied.
"Are you certain you will be alright?" Asked the Amazon Queen.
"Honestly mother, I don't know." Diana answered. "With Kal's death…it just doesn't seem fair."
"There's much in life that isn't fair, Diana." Hippolyta pointed out. "And most things/people we wished had stayed longer hardly ever do."
"I know, but…then why do I feel this pain inside?" Diana asked, partially to herself as well as to her mother. "I'm not a stranger to death, considering where Themyscira is and the losses we suffered over the centuries to fulfill our duty there, but…this pain is something else."
Once Diana finished her sentence did a knowing look cross the Amazon Queen's face.
"Did you have feelings for him Diana?"
Diana then looked at her mother with a look of surprise on her face. "What do you mean?"
"I mean over the course of these many months you have fought alongside him, did you develop feelings for him that went beyond friendship?" Hippolyta asked.
As she heard her mother talk Diana wanted to say no and that it wasn't true, but then as she started remembering the times she and Kal…Superman had since she arrived in Man's World – namely the time he had encouraged her to go back to her island and see her mother and Amazon sisters again…to when he comforted her after she was banished from Themyscira…to recently, when he sacrificed himself to save her and Batman, where after he was killed, she went into a rage and nearly killed Toyman had Flash not intervened…
"I…had been somewhat taken with him when I first saw him, but all throughout it had been just a good friendship, or at least that's what I felt at first."
"And at what point did those feelings grow stronger?" Hippolyta asked.
Right when Hippolyta asked that question did a look of realization then cross Diana's face, for she then knew.
"It was after I was banished."
"Did he return those feelings?"
"No." Diana answered.
"He didn't? How could a man like him not feel attracted to you?" Hippolyta asked with a look of genuine shock.
"By the time I realized what I felt for him, I had learned he was already taken with someone else." Diana said with a tone of resignation, which Hippolyta took notice of.
"You don't sound as though you were supportive of that." Noted the Queen.
"…no, I wasn't." Diana replied. "And it wasn't so much the fact that he was with someone else, but the circumstances in which they were courting."
"What do you mean?" Hippolyta asked.
Diana then explained to her mother what Kal (honest to Hera, why does she keep thinking that name, it's like she has what people call a verbal tic or something) told her in how he and Lois got together in the aftermath of Darkseid capturing and brainwashing him into attacking his adopted world, thus destroying the trust many people had in him.
"Did he ever tell Lois of his other life (his adopted family and such) before he died?" Hippolyta asked once Diana finished.
"No he didn't." Diana admitted.
"And what was he hoping to accomplish by not telling her?" Hippolyta asked.
"I don't know." Diana conceded. "Maybe he felt he was protecting her somehow."
"By withholding the truth?"
"Mother, it wasn't that simple for him. Especially considering what I said before." Diana pointed out.
"Perhaps." Hippolyta conceded. "But if he was afraid Lois wouldn't accept him in all facets of himself, and if he was not going to divulge that truth, then he should have never made the decision to pursue her."
Diana gave a slight sigh, but she didn't disagree with her mother on that point.
After spending some more time talking, Hippolyta bade her daughter farewell before leaving the apartment and headed over to where she had hidden the invisible jet. After that she then made her way back to Themyscira.
"So how was Diana?" Phillipus asked once Hippolyta landed and disembarked from the jet.
"She was beside herself, Phillipus." Hippolyta said to her Captain of The Guards. "To the point where I almost broke down myself, but after having spent some time with her, I believe she will eventually recover."
"Well, from what her friend Hawkgirl had told us, she more than has the right to grieve for a friend." Phillipus said. "And in spite of everything we as Amazons went through so long ago, it is at least comforting to know at least one man out in the patriarch world values something precious over base impulses."
"Indeed." Hippolyta agreed as they left the jet in its makeshift bay and headed back to the capital.
"Phillipus, have we been wrong?" Hippolyta asked her longtime friend.
"What do you mean?" Asked the Captain.
"I mean…have we been wrong in our perceptions of all men? Now I know we have told our sisters time and again the evils of men and what they did to us thousands of years ago and to never trust them…but now I am not certain what to believe anymore."
"Hippolyta, we had to do what was necessary at that time to protect ourselves and our fellow Amazon sisters." Phillipus said with a less formal tone since there weren't anyone within earshot.
"But what if by doing so, we're encouraging the desire for genocide on the male race?" Hippolyta asked. While the Queen could never reconcile herself to fully trust a man again, she knew there was a line between simply distrusting men and just wanting to kill every single man on sight because of their gender. Plus the fact that the Greek goddess Athena had decreed to her (and by extension her fellow sisters) not to take revenge on Heracles and his men for their actions towards them thousands of years ago was also another big reason as well. Unfortunately, not every one of Hippolyta's sisters (namely her actual sister Antiope) knew where that line was (or simply didn't care to know at that point), much to her dismay. Now, it seemed that Aresia had nearly done the same as Antiope and crossed that line, only much worse. Of course, Aresia had been manipulated by Circe, but it was still her own hatred that helped bring her to that point. In addition, Hippolyta realized in retrospect that her answer to Aresia before she died only spoke volumes of not only her own, but her entire Amazon tribe's inability/unwillingness to be at peace with what happened to them so long ago.
"I didn't think it was important. I didn't think he was important."
"If that's what we are encouraging our sisters to do, then we really haven't learned anything. Even after three thousand years. Not only that, but if genocide was committed, what would we tell the women who lost their husbands/sons/nephews/grandchildren? That because we were wronged by men, killing every male in the world is justified? I highly doubt we would have many sympathizers among the women in the patriarch world." Hippolyta finished as she remembered Hawkgirl's attitude towards the Amazon mindset.
Phillipus had nothing to say to that, so she stayed quiet as they entered the palace.
"Gather all the Amazons – Greek and Bana, and have them all assemble in the main square." Hippolyta said once they were in the main throne room.
"You wish to have a makeshift funeral for Superman?" Phillipus asked.
"Yes." Hippolyta replied.
"Not everyone will agree to this."
"I know, but hopefully once I explain everything they should understand. Besides, Superman is the reason my little sun and stars is still alive; it's the very least we Amazons can do."
Phillipus nodded and set off to accomplish her task.
In no time at all a makeshift funeral for Superman was underway on the island. At first it hadn't been easy convincing all the Amazons to go through with this (especially the Bana), but after Hippolyta explained what happened, they relented. Some still didn't want any part in the funeral because it involved honoring a man, but when Hippolyta then pointed out that it had been because of a man's sacrifice that Diana was alive right now did they grudgingly relent as well.
When Hippolyta gave the eulogy she didn't really have much to say, given that she didn't know Superman personally. However, she did say that his sacrifice would not be forgotten in any way (especially not by her, but she kept that to herself), and she hoped that he would be allowed to be at peace in the afterlife, wherever that afterlife may be.
After the funeral, Hippolyta retired to her chambers for the night, but just before she went to sleep, she said a silent prayer for her daughter and hoped that, in spite of her exile, she would be able to find comfort in her new friends out in the Patriarch World.
AN: Ever typed up a good ten-page chapter and then lost it all because your own jump drive got corrupted for some reason, thus having to start all over again, only to have the same thing happen one more time? Well, that's what happened to me during these few months, so what I ended up doing was putting it on my laptop instead of the jump drive, then I broke it up into two parts – the first half being what you just read, and the second one being the next chapter. Hopefully it won't take as long to write on the next go round. (Lol)
Miterá – means "mother" in Greek
Kóri – means "daughter" in Greek
