Chapter Three

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Water.

Cool, fresh, distantly soothing. He couldn't open his eyes to see it; could only dimly hear a voice murmuring in his ear and feel a strong hand at the nape of his neck as the wave swept up his body and broke against his chin.

There was nothing else in the world - only the locked prison of pain that seemed to ease a little as the coolness flooded in, fitting against him closer than his own ragged skin.

Then the water closed over his face, and Steve Trevor sighed and slipped away.

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It was a story the Amazons would tell forever - the night Diana came home, flying like the Furies, wearing the golden sandals of Hermes, and carrying a mortal man so close to death that there was no breath on his lips. She didn't slow, didn't stop, tearing past them all until she reached the healing pools, plunging both herself and her burden into the waters of renewal.

By the time they reached her, she was treading water, supporting the man's head against her shoulder with one hand while she gently splashed water over his face with the other. On her feet, the winged sandals thrashed, displeased at being held so long underwater, but she was too focused to notice or care. Nobody recognized the burned, bandaged, disfigured mortal in her arms as the the dapper young soldier who had brought war to their shores so recently.

"Help him," she begged, looking up - and the droplets streaming down her face were not all from the pool. "Please."

Hippolyta threw off her heavy cloak and was the first to reach her daughter's side.

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Not all the Amazons were exactly pleased, once they realized who the man was.

"He's the reason Antiope and the others are dead," some murmured, levelling distrustful glances at Diana's burden. "Throw him back into the sea. He deserves to die for what he's done."

Others disagreed. "That decision is in the hands of the Fates," Menalippe argued, eyes growing distant. "For a mortal man to come twice to our shores - this has not happened before. This is significant. Perhaps he has a destiny greater than we can see."

Hippolyta ignored them all, cupping her daughter's face in her hands and searching the precious features. Only when she was certain that Diana was not hurt did she direct her attention to the thing in her daughter's arms.

The soaked gauze bandages were beginning to unwind, trailing white and ragged in the water, and some of the scorched flesh left exposed was starting to slough off as well. Only the faintest flutter beneath the line of the slack jaw gave away that there was still any life left at all.

Even to a battle-hardened Amazon, the sight was gruesome. The queen looked back into Diana's face, eyebrows raised questioningly.

"You brought him back?"

There was fire in Diana's eyes when she met her mother's gaze - a certainty and maturity that had never been there before. Somehow, in the short time since she had left, the young princess had come into her own.

"I could not leave him," she breathed, and her hands were very gentle as she held the dying man's head, supported his body in the water. Something new and tender and very raw quivered in her voice as she continued. "I have seen too much death already."

The grief and appeal written plainly across Diana's face tore her mother's heart from top to bottom. This was her little girl - the soft-hearted child who had come to her countless times with tear-streaked cheeks and a wounded seabird in her hands, begging her to fix it.

In some ways, things had never changed.

Decision made, the queen raised her head. Epione, who had driven the rest of the Amazons out while they had been talking, approached the edge of the healing pool with silent feet. On the battlefield she was only one of many skilled warriors, but in the healing chambers she held undisputed sway, and the others gave way before her.

There was no better healer.

"There is not much life left in him," Hippolyta warned.

Her tone implied consent, and Diana's face glowed with stubborn faith. "But there is life."

Epione slid into the pool to join them. Coolly, dispassionately, she touched the slowly fluttering pulse at his throat, held a wet hand over his bloody lips to feel the faint, unsteady passage of air.

"His heart is strong," she said at last. "I will do what I can, if he can bear it."

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Sunsets were splendid on Themyscira. The flaming scarlet globe dipped tentatively into the blue waves, flattening and spreading as it gilded the sky. For a breathless age, it would hang suspended before finally plunging headlong into darkness and making way for the great, crystalline stars that took its place.

The golden glory was at its height when Hippolyta found her daughter. Diana curled beside a window, staring out at the beauty with thoughtful, unseeing eyes. She had bathed and changed, but a comb lay unheeded in her lap and her wet hair tangled around her shoulders. In a corner, the winged sandals fluffed their feathers and preened, seemingly still annoyed at their soaking earlier.

For a moment, Hippolyta watched, silently. Then, without a word, she crossed the room and took the comb from her daughter's lax fingers. Diana flinched, suddenly aware, but she didn't protest as her mother sat behind her and began to gently work the comb through the damp, messy mass of her hair.

This quiet ritual had happened so many, many times throughout the ages, although not as often since Diana had become a woman. Neither one spoke as Hippolyta methodically worked out the tangles until the comb could glide smoothly from Diana's scalp to the tips of her hair.

If only it were this easy to untangle the other things troubling her daughter.

"Epione will not let me help," Diana said eventually. Out across the water, the sun was very nearly to the point of slipping beneath the horizon, and the red light bathed the two women in a warm glow.

"As she should," Hippolyta responded without heat. "It is different to heal a human. They are more fragile. She needs to concentrate."

Even now, there was barely a chance that Steve Trevor would survive. Amazonian healing methods were effective, but not meant for mortals.

There was another long pause, filled only with the sound of the comb sliding through long hair over and over. The sun was fully set and Diana's hair hung like a silken mantle around her shoulders by the time she suddenly turned and laid her head in her mother's lap. It was an open, unexpectedly affectionate gesture, and it caught Hippolyta briefly off guard.

Diana hadn't done this in years.

Then again, she had faced so much in this last short space of time.

Hippolyta traced a light line across her daughter's features with her fingertips, smoothing the puckers in Diana's forehead and around her eyes. It was a tender caress she had not used on her daughter since the girl was a child.

"There is so much ugliness," said Diana at last, as though she was continuing a conversation they'd been having the entire time. "So much hatred and death and pain in their short lives."

"Then will you stay?" Hippolyta prompted, just as softly.

Diana lifted dark eyelashes and looked up at her mother. The stars through the open window reflected in her eyes.

"There is also love," she said quietly. "And friendship, and music, and dancing, and ice cream and brand new little babies. Someone has to fight to save all that."

So the soldier had taught her daughter love, then - love beyond the sisterly and filial affection she had known heretofore. Hippolyta had wondered, but now she knew for sure. It was a lesson that would make Diana at once both stronger and more vulnerable - a lesson Hippolyta herself had once learned long ago, and which had made her what she was.

They do not deserve you, Diana, her breaking heart whispered. They will never deserve you.

"I understand," she said instead, and laid her hand lightly over Diana's eyes so her daughter would not see her tears in the starlight. She had never been prouder of her precious girl; never been more heartbroken. "I understand."

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Fun Fact: The line about the Amazons wanting to throw him into the sea comes from a comic panel that I accidentally found while researching Epione. I'm not sure what issue it's from, but if anybody knows, please tell me so I can credit it!

In other news, there will be one more chapter. I'd initially miscalculated and thought there would be three, but Hippolyta decided she wanted some time to herself in this one.

Thanks for the kind reception and reviews! You've no idea how happy they've made me. :)