Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips, looked down upon the small human at his feet. He glanced up to see the guard with Barda rush forward and train their weapons upon the black haired creature. The two fools that he called sons, Grayven and Kalibak, were stumbling to their feet looking furious at having been embarrassed by a mere human girl.
Darkseid looked at the broken door and without turning addressed a tall, slim, pale faced man in long robes standing behind him.
"Desaad, I await an explanation."
Desaad, advisor to the ruler of Apokolips, rubbed his chin. "I do not know what is going on... Perhaps Barda can explain what is happening here, my Lord."
Darkseid turned his back on Diana and mounted the steps. He sat upon his throne and looked at Barda who was looking self-conscious now.
She came forward and bowed. "Forgive the commotion, Lord Darkseid. This girl is just one of the new shipments brought in by Kanto. She managed to escape before we could consign her to her place."
"Escape?" Darkseid's voice sounded sarcastic.
Before Barda could reply, Granny Goodness appeared with Kanto. She hustled in pushing past the guards, cursing them as she did. She glared at Diana who was now being manacled and fitted with a new collar.
She looked at her ruler. "The child was a miscalculation of Kanto's. She was a potential to join my orphanage…"
Diana looked up at that and spat, "I am not at orphan! You kidnapped me from my mother and sisters!"
Granny stared at her as if she had grown a second head. The others simply stared at the child as if she was insane. No one talked back to Granny Goodness. Darkseid laced his fingers together and leaned back. There was something akin to the merest crack at the corner of his stern mouth for a mere second.
"You insolent, little…" snapped Granny.
Darkseid interrupted coldly, "Granny, you were saying?"
Granny said tersely, "She was picked up from Earth. Kanto, as you know, has eyes and ears all over the universe and heard of an Amazon prodigy and went and took her. But it happens she is a mixture of human clay and magic. Brought to life by the Gods of Olympus themselves. She is not a good candidate for us. She is Lowly material and she broke free before we could send her down."
Darkseid mused dryly, "This child broke free and managed to traverse the Citadel, going so far as passing armed parademons and Hounds and you say she is not a good candidate?"
Granny blinked. "She is everything we do not accept. Magic based and human DNA."
Desaad added, "Earth is a backwater, primitive planet. The Elite are taken from the best gene pool we can find."
"What Earth may or may be hardly concerns me," replied Darkseid. "He looked down at Diana and to Kanto. "What can she do?"
"Flight, speed, strength, and rapid self healing factor...so far."
"I see." He gestured to Barda. "Come forward."
She obeyed. "Yes, my lord?"
"Take her under your wing. I want you and Kanto train her."
If Barda was surprised she did not bat a lash. "Yes, my lord."
Granny exclaimed, "But…!"
He looked at Granny with a warning look. "Is that understood?"
Granny bowed and said gruffly, "Understood."
Diana was raised to her feet. She shoved the two guards and rushed to Darkseid's feet.
"Please, my mother is the Queen of the Amazons. I am Themyscira's Princess. You cannot keep me here! Send me home!"
She was dragged backwards. "No one dictates to Darkseid, human," said Desaad.
Darkseid said coldly, "You are the property of Apokolips now. This is the Fourth World. We cannot even be found by your people. There is no Themyscira anymore. Consider it and your family dead."
Tears stung Diana's eyes but she began defiantly, "My Gods…"
"Have no power here and cannot save you. If you are smart, you will try to survive the training and then you may vie to become one of my Furies. There is no greater glory than to serve me. Take her away."
Barda looked at the girl with the hair as black as night and eyes as blue as jewels. The manacles had come off and she had been taken along with the other three girls to the place known as the "orphanage".
The Khund, the Vuldarian and vampire-like alien were all in their early teens in comparison to the Amazon who was only ten years old.
Barda looked at her. "What is your name?"
She said nothing. Barda repeated herself. "Fine. I can call you, Amazon or human if you like."
She looked up reluctantly. "Diana."
Barda looked at the others. They told her their names. The Khund was called Nira, the Vuldarian was Dalmar and the vampire was called Miri.
She stopped before the doorway to their new "home" and said, "Inside you will join other orphans like yourselves. We have strict training schedules that will start for you from tomorrow. For now you will be sanitized and change from those …rags that you are wearing. Then you will meet the other Furies."
The Khund asked, "What are Furies?"
"We are Darkseid's elite guard. We are among the best warriors in the Fourth World…the whole universe if you like."
"We are to become Furies?" asked the Vuldarian uneasily.
Barda said, "You are to be trained. Whether you become a Fury is a matter of debate."
For the next hour Diana and the others were subjected to being sanitized. They were examined by automated robots for signs of illness, and then had their hair cut short. They were then hustled into showers and changed into a kind of fitted tunic over calf high fitted pants and boots. They all wore the collars that not only acted as a security device but it had a universal translator which allowed them to understand each other. At least until they learned the language that was spoken on Apokolips.
They were taken to meet the Furies.
Diana stood within the group of abductees and watched as the Darkseid's Elite warriors known as the "Furies" moved around them like vultures circling their carrion. Barda had brought them into this part the orphanage that was a kind of lounge for the warriors. They often relaxed there when no training was going on.
Barda took the opportunity to introduce the neophytes. Each Fury's name seemed a testament to her ability or temperament. Mad Harriet was angular with wild hair and had deadly looking claws. Stompa was short and thick with powerful legs. The one called Gillotina it seemed had the ability to slice through any object. Then there was Bernadeth, who looked like a female version of Desaad. She was, in fact, his sister.
"Well, so these are our new victims…I mean, recruits," cackled Mad Harriet.
Bernadeth sniffed as Stompa poked the females. "Not very vigorous looking, are they?"
Gillotina stopped near Diana. "Especially this one. Human, I hear. She won't last a week."
Diana looked her back in the eye without a flinch and said, "I will not stay here a week."
"Did she just speak to me? Tell me that she did not just speak to me…"growled Gillotina and looked to grab Diana by the collar. "Are you insane, human? I have cleaved the head of a Lowly for less."
Barda held her arm and put it down. "Hold your hand. She is just a child." She gave at her warning look.
Bernadeth studied her. She smiled cruelly. "So you are the one who caused all the trouble." She bent to look Diana in the eye. "Listen here, brat, Darkseid may have been amused by your little antics but here you will have to work to even be considered good enough to kiss our boots. There is no one here to pamper you or listen to what you will or will not do. You best change that defiant tone because I swear that pretty little face will feel the cut of my Fahren knife."
Harriet snorted, "I think some exercise in the Pits might teach her some manners."
Diana looked to open her mouth when Barda yanked her away from them. "She is to be trained by myself and Kanto."
Stompa looked suspicious. "What?"
"Yes. You can take these three." Barda indicated to the other girls.
Bernadeth folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. The idea that the human was being given special concession irritated them. Normally all the recruits would be at their mercy to taunt and torture.
"Take her. We'll see how long she will last."
Diana and the trainees were taken to their sleeping quarters in the orphanage. Every girl had a small cell that had energy locks. Granny would not risk any one them escaping or causing trouble. The day they earned their place as a Fury would be the day they got freedom to roam the Citadel.
Barda passed Diana a bowl with something that looked like food.
Diana looked at it and shook her head.
"Very well. Starve."
She dropped the bowl on the table near her bunk. "The training here is…" Barda had to halt to choose an appropriate word, "…rigorous and you will need every bit of energy you can get. Sulking is not going to strengthen you."
Diana turned away and huddled into the wall.
Barda looked at her and sighed. She remembered her own distress when she had been brought here as if it were yesterday. This one had a kind of inbred imperiousness that was surely going to cause trouble. She added as she left her, "Get use to it here, little one. This is your life now. You can make the best of it. You have enormous potential. The Dark Lord himself saw it and you could become a great servant of Apokolips, even a Fury. Or you could make yourself the focus of my comrades' derision and loathing. They are not me. I have patience. But only so much. Ponder your situation well and submit or else you will wither away and die."
Diana lay down upon the mattress and closed her eyes, and prayed to her Gods.
Barda entered the dining hall.
Sitting here were most of the hierarchy with the exception of the Darklord, and Desaad.
Darkseid never sat with them. He had no need to do anything as mundane as eating with others.
Sitting at the long table were Grayven, Kalibak, another man with longish dark hair and a short beard, and members of the Elite. As the leader of the Furies, only Barda was allowed to sit with the company.
Barda's eyes met the man's for a brief instant as she walked past and took her place. She sat down next to the leader of the military and one who vied for her attentions, one called Steppenwolf. Next to him sat Virman Vundabar, another soldier, and Kanto. Granny sat at the head of the table.
"So, Barda, has the insolent little insect been incarcerated for the night?"
"She has, Granny. As have the others."
"We have to watch her. She is more slippery than a Brallian Eel.." Granny's eyes turned to the dark haired man. "Else we will have to have Scott create a special prison for her."
Scott Free looked up. Like most of them there, he had been reared in Granny's terror orphanage. His parentage had always been a mystery but he was immortal, had great strength, reflexes, agility and coordination. At a young age, he showed a great talent in escapology and the use of science and technology. It was this brilliance in creating the most superior locks and traps in the Fourth World that contributed to his rise in the ranks.
He had heard of the commotion earlier that day. He was mildly surprised when he heard it was a human. And an immortal one at that.
"But she is just a child, is she not?"
Barda glanced up at that. Her eyes softened but she forced herself to focus on her platter.
Granny smacked her lips greedily on a piece of space dolphin. "The bite and poison of a young fire serpent is no less painful and deadly than an adult. And this one has Gods for patrons and is magical in nature. We must be very careful."
Kanto said, "Their training begins tomorrow. We will re-educate the little Amazon."
Steppenwolf looked at him with a sarcastic look. "Let us hope you can do it, Kanto. It baffles me that you choose to go to Earth to take this creature and that Darkseid would even let her pollute Apokolips."
"I know potential when I see it and so does Darkseid. And I think he would be very interested to know that you are questioning his decision."
Granny put her hand up. "None is questioning his decision. We are here for the glory of Darkseid. His word is law and life. But it does not mean we have to be fools about nursing a snake in our bosom. I want that creature broken sooner rather than later."
Desaad looked at Darksied as he stood on the highest balcony of the Citadel that over looked the plains of firepits. The master torturer and advisor was a little uneasy. He did not want to seem insolent but he had concerns about the newest recruit for the orphanage.
"My Lord, I do not want to sound presumptuous …"
Darkseid interjected, "She stays, Desaad."
"But why?" He came around to face his profile. "It can't just be because of her abilities. We have other immortal souls with immense powers and abilities here. What is so different or special about this one?"
"In all your years, has any young recruit ever managed to escape her bonds, and fend off hounds, parademons, the head Fury, and master assassin and make her way to the Citadel and reach my throne?"
"Well, no…"
"No. Imagine if she had been older, trained, and my enemy. What could she have done?"
"So she is a threat…."
"Yes, she could be. Or she could become one of my greatest servants. Nothing happens in this world without reason, Desaad. You think I do not know that they all plot behind my back? All who profess to love me?"
"But my lord…" he stammered.
Darkseid looked him in the eye. "It is the way of the world. To covet . To grasp. To scheme. It is what we taught them all and taught them to do well. They would not be who they are or as good at what they do if they were different. I know it is not for love of me but fear of what I would do that keeps everyone in check." He smiled. "They do not like or trust this one. All the better."
Desaad did not know what to say. Darkseid had this all knowing aura. If there was anything underhanded going on, it was only because he knew and tolerated it. Tolerated it for some unseen, cogent reason.
Darkseid suddenly turned his head and seemed to stare behind Desaad. "Leave me."
Desaad looked taken aback but bowed and withdrew.
Darkseid faced the horizon once more, his hands behind his back. He said brusquely, "What do you want here, Interloper?"
The air behind him seemed to shiver and a tall man with golden hair, white chiton, winged sandals, and cap, carrying a staff appeared. Hermes, Messenger of the Gods and patron of boundaries drew forward.
"I come on behalf of the Gods of Olympus. Send the child back to her home."
"I will be willing to barter. Give me the Anti-Life Equation."
"That is impossible. Even if we knew it, why would we be so foolish as to give you the power to subvert free will?"
"Well, then you waste your time here."
"I will take her," he began.
"Take her?" Darkseid snorted. "She was captured fairly. Like any other slave that has been captured throughout the universe. They want her? Then let them send one who is not a God to rescue her. Abide with the rules that govern our Pantheons. If you break them, I will be well prepared to send legions to destroy this back-water planet, Earth, and enslave the people that dwell there. Think carefully, Trickster, before you would take her. She is but one that has been lost as opposed to the hundreds of thousands than can be slain by my legions."
"You would not dare."
"Spare me your self righteous indignation. You have Gods in your Pantheon than thrive on slaughter and bloodlust. For centuries these same Gods watched the lowly humans fight and kill and enslave each other and they did nothing to stop it. So do not pretend your concern is borne out of any higher, altruistic feeling."
Hermes' hand tightened on his caduceus. He tried a different tact. "Her mother and nation grieves."
"I gave up my own son to broker a peace between Apokolips and New Genesis. Speak not to me about grief. She is now Apokolips' property. You take her and there will be war. I suggest you leave. Now." He moved to go inside.
Hermes cried, "Is there nothing I can offer you to change your mind?"
"You care much for this little one."
"I am one of her patrons. Of course I care. The Gods had faith in Diana to become a champion to her people and of the earth. Her destiny was to be an avatar of truth, love, peace and justice."
"If that is her destiny then not even Apokolips can stop it. You have faith in her? Then let us see if she can chart her own destiny. Let what is imminent unfold. Let us see who will triumph. Apokolips or Olympus."
"You will torture and brainwash her. How is that fair?"
He laughed and walked away. "Nothing is fair on Apokolips, Messenger. Now begone lest I lose my patience and burn you to ash."
Hermes vanished.
Hermes appeared in the small dimly lit cell than held Diana.
She now lay asleep. No doubt exhausted by the day.
There were now tear stains on her cheeks. Reminding him so poignantly that as brave an Amazon she might be, she was still foremost a child.
Hermes knelt down and his fingers gently touched her soft cheek. "I am sorry, my Princess. There is naught I can do. Zeus would not go to war. Not for one child. And your mother and sisters would suffer at that tyrant's hand if I take you back. I cannot intercede but I will not abandon you. I will try to watch over you. Be strong, my brave Diana."
He stroked her brow and vanished.
Hippolyta sat at the foot of the statue of Hera.
Her head was resting weakly against the column that supported the huge image of the Queen of the Gods.
The temple was quiet and silent save for the occasional whistle of the wind.
Firm and quick footsteps sounded on the marble floor. Hippolyta did not even turn.
General Phillipus came forward and put a respectful hand on her monarch's shoulder.
"Majesty, it has been a week. You have not eaten and drunken anything. Come away. The Goddesses must have heard you by now."
Hippolyta raised her head. Her hair was unkempt and eyes looked sunken and almost wild. Her gown rumpled and stained. Her voice was low but fierce. "I will not leave until she speaks! Why will she not speak? Why will she not tell me who took my daughter? Why are the Gods mute? I have devoted my life to them. Done everything in their name and glory. I have prayed and fasted and groveled. What more must I do?"
"I do not know why they do not speak. The ways of the Gods are an eternal mystery."
"I do not ask for wealth or more kingdoms. I ask only for some sign that Diana is alive. Some clue where she might be…"
"Majesty, we are trying every means of searching for the Princess. We are combing every part of Themyscira and environs. We have even sent word to Atlantis. Sent sisters to the Bana-Midghall. The Oracle, try as she might, cannot see anything. It is as if Diana has vanished from our lands."
"How can that be? No one simply vanishes. The things that took her and killed our two sisters came for her and Donna. They could have come for us but they did not want us. They wanted my children," she whispered, her voice perilously close to breaking.
"Yes, and because of Diana's bravery, they did not get Donna. We still have Donna, thank the Gods. And she is terrified and crying every night for you and Diana. I do not know how to explain to her where Diana is and why her mother refuses to come out of the temple to comfort her. To hold her and kiss her goodnight."
The Queen's eyes widened in dawning pain and realization. "Gods, I am neglecting Donna…"
"And your duties," she added gently. "Our sisters are worried. After what happened here, they need to see you. To feel secure. The Senate cannot make decisions without you. You must come and try to carry on."
She gave her a hand. Hippolyta accepted it and she stood up shakily. She seemed to sway. Phillipus put an arm to steady her. "You are weak. Lean on me."
"Phillipus, I know Diana is alive. If she were otherwise, I would feel it here." She pointed to her heart. "Please Gods, where ever she is, may she be safe and come to no harm. I want more Amazons to go out and search every corner of the Patriarch's world to find her."
Phillipus looked at her gravely. "The Partiarch's world?"
"Yes. The Patriarch's world."
"Get up, earthling."
Diana felt something shake her bunk and she jerked to full wakefulness. She blinked. Her eyes burned and she looked around with a sinking heart to realize that it had not been a dream. She was a prisoner. She focused to see a lithe, dark haired, teenage girl looking at her with a scathing expression.
"Who are you?"
"Get up. You are wanted by Granny."
Diana hesitated. The girl said dryly, "You can come willingly or be dragged. I just have to call the guards."
Diana stood up.
The girl clicked her tongue. "Follow me."
Diana obeyed and followed her out of the cell. She saw Miri, Nira and Dalmar standing there surrounded by four armed guards. They looked confused and disorientated as well.
They were led out of the confined area and down a long winding corridor that led out of the Orphanage across a large courtyard that had girls training with Stompa and Mad Harriet. Everyone paused to stare as they walked past. The two Furies seemed to smirk knowingly, especially at Diana.
They were led into the opposite building. Diana's hand felt her collar and she tried to tug at when she felt a sharp poke in the back. The guard glared at her and waved his energy weapon threateningly. Diana dropped her hands.
They entered a long dimly lit walkway and came to stop in a circular foyer.
Standing there was Granny Goodness with Desaad.
She smiled "Thank you, Lashina. You may go back to your training." The girl bowed and withdrew. The gray haired woman looked at the four girls. "Welcome to the Preparation rooms. Here you will learn that serving Darkseid is the greatest thing you can do with your worthless lives. You will learn to love him and serve him and die for him." Her eyes fell on Diana and she smiled cruelly, "Especially you, little princess." She nodded to guards. "Take them inside."
The girls were pushed roughly towards four individual doors.
Diana opened her eyes and realized she was lying alone in darkness. She blinked and blindly grasped around to try to find something to orientate herself. Her hands hit against hard metal walls and she realized she was in a confined space, like a hole in the ground. She could barely stand. She gasped and punched and kicked the walls. Over and over. But to no avail. It was strong and unyielding.
She needed to get out!
It was dark and the air felt heavy and she felt she could not breathe.
She needed to get out.
To see light.
She needed light.
She needed to go home.
To see the sun.
To breathe fresh air.
See trees.
Smell flowers.
See her mother and sisters.
But it remained dark and silent and she was trapped.
It felt like days…days…How many had passed?
Diana was lying on the floor, weakened from having tried unsuccessfully to get out of her prison. Her finger nails were torn and bleeding. Her body felt bruised from having thrown herself at the walls. Her stomach was hungry and her throat was parched.
The voice began quietly. Insidiously. Like one of the crawling anthropods she saw in the mystical areas on Themyscira.
"Who are you?"
"What?"
"What are you?"
"I am Diana…"
"You are no one."
"I am an Amazon!" she gasped.
"You are nothing."
"My mother is Queen of Themyscira! I am its princess!" she cried.
"You are insignificant."
"No!" She tried to get up and break out again.
The voice laughed. "Nothing. You are nothing. A weak slave. No one cares you are here. No one came to look for you. No one will rescue you. They are probably glad you were abducted."
Diana covered her ears. "Stop it!"
The voice and laughter reverberated, like echoes in a cavern, and she crumpled to her knees.
Diana opened her eyes and looked at herself. She was normal. Her hands were not cut and bleeding. Her hair was not shorn. She was in her tunic. She was at home. She let out a shuddering gasp. It had been a dream! Tears filled her eyes and she wiped them and shakily rose.
She rushed out of the room. She was going to tell her mother. She ran out into the corridor towards her mother's chambers. She came to a halt in a long gallery and gasped.
Lying on the ground were dead Amazons. Phillipus. Penelope. Euboea. Their eyes were staring and glassy and there was blood on the floor and the smell of burnt flesh.
Diana heard cackling laughter behind her.
She turned around and saw Granny Goodness and Kanto. Kanto had Donna in his grasp.
"Thank you for leading us home once again so we can get this little one too. Your sisters had no idea they were going to be attacked."
"I…did not…"
Donna was crying. "Why did you bring them here?"
"I…did not…Donna…" She tried to go to her.
Kanto held a blade to Donna's neck. "You would be better to stay away."
"She led us here to save her own neck," said Granny. "She is a wicked, selfish brat. It's her fault they are all dead."
"No! I never! That is a lie!"
"You did not want to stay. You escaped. So we came to get this little one and of course, stop anyone who gets in our way. You have many fine strong warriors here who will make good slaves."
Suddenly she was standing upon the steps of the Palace and looking down at the wide concourse.
She saw the parademon army leading her many sisters in chains. Included in this was her mother. And she was manacled by the neck and wrists. They were being whipped and herded into cages like animals.
Hippolyta looked at Diana and said mournfully, "This is your fault, daughter! You brought this horror upon us!"
"NO! Stop! Tell them to stop!" she shrieked at Granny.
Granny sneered. "If you had stayed, none of this would have happened."
"Liar!"
Kanto was taking Donna. She tried to launch herself at him
Granny used a mega-rod upon her. She fell to the marble floor in pain.
"No one wants you any more," sneered Granny. She nodded to Kanto and they pressed something on their wrists and vanished.
Diana saw the ships lift off and vanish into tunnels of light and thunder.
She stood alone on Themyscira, with only dead bodies to keep her company.
The young princess wailed in anguish for her mother, sister and the dead.
Diana lay panting. She was lying on a table. Strapped down with restrains and a cerebral manipulator on her head.
Desaad and Granny were looking down at her.
Granny was impatient. "Why is she taking longer than the others to break? Aren't you usually able to rob them of their will in a few days? She's just a little brat. How could she be resisting for so long?"
"We are close. She is babbling, disorientated and guilt ridden."
"Why don't we just wipe her memories?"
"If we want a mindless lackey, yes, we would do that. But Darkseid is hoping to groom this one as a Fury. We need her personality traits in tact and her strength and stubbornness as assets. We need her to bow willingly to the will of Apokolips. We cannot afford to wipe her mind and end up with someone who has none of that drive and will to become one of the Elite. And the magical nature of her birth makes it too risky.
"I would whip and rack her then."
He smiled. "Those are short term measures to discipline, not to recondition. I have no doubt with this one you will get that pleasure in time. But psychological torture is more effective than physical when you want to torture and brainwash a subject. The programs have been tapping into her biggest fears and magnifying them. She is just a child so her fears would be more based around her loss of identity and abandonment. I am very close to getting her to betray herself."
He went to the main control and tapped into the console.
"This time the simulation will exploit not only her courage but what she believes."
"Wake up!"
Diana felt water thrown upon her and she opened her eyes.
She was shackled by her wrists from a horizontal bar. She could barely stand. Were it not for the shackles she would be on the floor. She sagged and her body felt drained. She had been sleep deprived and not given sustenance for days. She had been mentally tortured by Desaad. She had been isolated and seen her mother and sisters tortured and enslaved. She did not know what had been real and what had been mind manipulation.
Now she looked up to see also shackled next to her was the Khund, Nira.
Granny Goodness stood along with the Furies and the whole group of orphans.
Stompa was the one who had thrown the water on her. And next to her stood Gillotina who carried a whip that was spiked with electrical tails.
Diana blinked. She did not know what was happening. Her mind was a jumble of terrifying memories and conflicting emotions. How did she get here?
Granny was speaking, "Those who refuse to obey will be punished."
Gillotina flicked the whip in the air and it crackled.
Granny said, "Our whippings have not tamed her recalcitrance. She continues to defy us by refusing to accept our education. So maybe this time she will start to obey if we whip someone in her stead."
Diana's head jerked up.
Gillotina went to Nira and she ripped down her tunic to bare her back.
Nira tugged on her bonds. "I have done all you ask of me! Why punish me?"
Granny smiled. "We will whip you because the little princess refuses to obey. And the longer she refuses to obey we will select one of you every day to punish."
Diana paled. "No…"
Nira looked at her with hate and terror in her eyes. "You! This is your doing! You cling to a life that is gone and dead to you! You are selfish and care about no one but yourself!"
"I…I …do not…" Diana's head ached. She was feeling sick in her stomach.
Granny gave Gillotina the nod. Nira gave a shuddering gasped at the first lash.
Diana cried, "Stop!"
Gillotina raised the whip again. Nira screamed.
The screams grew louder and more agonizing. Mixed in with them were Diana's own cries of despair and entreaties for them to stop.
She pleaded, wild eyed and trembling, "Do not hurt her any more! I am at fault. Not her!"
Gillotina sneered. "Yes, you are at fault. Your Amazon arrogance is the reason for everything. You must reject it."
"I…"
Nira screamed harder.
Diana flinched. "Please, stop…"
Granny announced, "We will only stop, when you learn to obey. Can you obey?"
Diana's lips trembled and her head fell hopelessly to her chest. "I…can."
"Yes but will you?" Granny persisted.
"I …will…"
Granny raised her hand for Gillotina to stop.
She bent in close to the blue eyed girl. Her breath was heated and foul on Diana's cheek. "Tell me again, who are you?"
"I am…n-no one."
"What are you?"
"I am nothing."
"Whose fault is it that we are here today?"
"M-mine."
Granny patted her cheek sharply. "Excellent."
Granny Goodness looked at the subject and demanded. "Well?"
Desaad removed the cerebral manipulator and said, "We shall see."
The restraints were removed from Diana's wrists and ankles. She was raised up by Barda. She sagged weakly. She was sunken eyed and disorientated.
Barda looked at her with some concern. "She looks ill."
"She is exactly where we want her," he replied. He tilted her chin. "Now my dearest child, tell me, what is your purpose?"
Diana croaked. "I am here to love, serve and die for Darkseid."
"Say it again."
Tears slid down her cheek. "I am here to love, serve and die for Darkseid."
Desaad looked at Granny with a triumphant smile.
"She is now yours to re-mould."
Author's Note : This was a difficult chapter to write not only because of the subject but I needed to try to get across Diana's isolation, disorientation and mind manipulation. I hope I managed to do that. As distressing as it is, this grooming is the norm in Granny's Terror Orphanage. Barda and Scott Free themselves have been subject to this type of "education".
Just to note, in comics Darkseid had exchanged his own son Orion for Scott Free with New Genesis as a means of ending a war between the two kingdoms.
Thanks to those who took the time to read and review.
