Disclaimer – All rights belong to Marvel and DC. I own nothing.
Chapter 12 – Time Never Stops
Paris, Diana's apartment – April 5th, 1992
Diana opened the bedroom's door slowly, carefully not to make noise, even though she knew Natalia was up. As she was already aware, Natalia had her eyes open and turned to look at her, still tucked in her bed, looking incredibly adorable under her red and blue sheets, Captain America's shield proudly displayed on its surface.
Of course, the cuteness of the view was somewhat lessened by the big knife on the nightstand, the loaded pistol by her pillow and the mounted sniper-rifle pointed outside, ready to shoot any threat through the big window.
Small steps, Diana reminded herself, small steps.
"Good morning," Diana said, smiling. "Breakfast is ready."
Natalia nodded and got up, somehow managing to hide her pistol in her Captain America pajamas as she did so. Diana didn't mind one bit; she obviously wasn't a normal child and would never be, so if the guns made her feel safer, well, all the better for her.
"I hope you like pancakes." Diana said, as Natalia sat down in front of a plate full of blueberry pancakes. "It's one of the few things I can make that actually taste good."
Natalia simply looked at her plate.
"I've never eaten pancakes before," she finally said, picking up her fork.
"Then you won't have anything to compare to," Diana joked, also sitting down, pulling a notebook and a pen together with her plate.
Both of them were in silence for several seconds, only the faint sounds of writing and the cutlery filling the room. Apparently, Natalia liked her breakfast, because she was eating faster and faster; that made Diana smile.
"What are you doing?" Natalia asked a few moments later.
Diana didn't answer for a few seconds, still writing nonstop. "I'm writing down the information necessary for your fake documentation. I'll send it to someone I know and a few days from now he'll send us every document you need."
That seemed to catch her interest, because she stopped eating to watch Diana now.
"Don't worry, it's not the first time I've done this," Diana reassured her. "I had to change identity a few times over the years too."
"Do you need any help?" Natalia asked.
"It's mostly done, but I do need your opinion on the 'name' part," Diana answered, looking at her. "Should I just go with 'Natalia Prince' or do you have a better idea?"
Natalia's eyebrows raised for a second and she looked at Diana with an unreadable expression for a moment; then, very slowly, she smiled. For a time there, Diana saw nothing but a happy child in front of her.
"I like that," she whispered, shyly.
Diana smiled. "'Natalia Prince' it is, then. I'm not that imaginative when it comes to fake names, to be honest. I find it a lot easier to keep things closer to what we are used to."
"I went by 'Natasha' sometimes," Natalia observed.
"We could use that next time," Diana stated, nodding, as she wrote something else. "So you are 'Natalia Prince', daughter of 'Diana Prince' and 'Steve Prince'."
Diana finished writing with a smile, extremely satisfied with herself.
"You really do have a problem with names, don't you?" Natalia deadpanned.
"Just eat your breakfast," Diana countered, fake scowling.
Closing the notebook, Diana pushed it away and started eating too. The past few days had been unusually quiet, no work, no unforeseen events, no people trying to kill her. They had just stayed home, got out to buy the things Natalia needed, watched TV… Things that would bore Diana out of her mind on normal times, but somehow made her feel quite content right now.
"I actually wanted to tell you something," Diana said, suddenly, remembering the talk she had with Peggy. Natalia stopped eating for a second, looking at her. "I spoke to Peggy yesterday – your friends are alright, by the way – and she offered you a job."
There was just silence.
"As an agent, I mean," Diana added, trying to fill the silence. "You will, of course, go through a training period and you won't be sent to any mission right now, not until you are ready, and only the missions you want to take, of course."
She still didn't say anything.
"You would undergo your training in the Triskelion, in Washington D.C," Diana continued, more to fill the silence than anything. "I mean, you–"
"Can I still visit you sometimes?" Natalia asked, resigned, her voice so low that Diana wouldn't have listened to her if her own hearing wasn't that good.
Diana was by Natalia's side in less than a second, her hand touching her cheeks.
"We can come back to Paris whenever we want, but I think it would be much easier for both of us if we bought a place in Washington." Natalia's eyes got wide for a moment. "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you, unless you want it. I just mentioned Peggy's offer because I thought it would be good for you, so you can meet some people more… aligned with what we do."
Natalia still didn't say anything, she just kept staring at Diana.
"So I don't… I don't have to go?" she asked.
"You don't have to go anywhere you don't want to," Diana affirmed. "And you can go at another time, should you wish it. Or not at all. I just…" Diana sighed, trying to come up with the right words. "People like you and I… We are different. There is no way around that. Can you picture yourself going to school? Organizing playdates? Going to birthday parties?"
The outraged expression on Natalia's face was answer enough.
"In SHIELD you could at least meet people who understand our way of life a little better. Not completely, of course, but better than any children in a school, of that I'm sure."
"But what about you? Are you coming too?" Natalia asked.
Diana smiled. "No, that is a path open only to you. I'm afraid I'm a little too different to fit there as well." She got up and sat on her chair again. "Like I said, it was only an offer. You don't have to accept it or you can accept it later. Peggy had a team in mind for you to lead, should you go to SHIELD."
"Team?"
"Your friends," Diana answered. "When they are ready, Peggy suggested to form a new team for them. "She hesitated for a moment, almost embarrassed to say it out loud. "She plans to call them 'Amazons'."
That particular piece of information made Natalia smile.
"That doesn't sound so bad, then," she joked.
She mock scowled again, getting up. "If you think so, then come with me, I want to show you something."
Hesitantly, Natalia followed her through the apartment, entering her room. She remained by the door while Diana opened her closet, pulling a big chest from inside it, using a key to unlock it. It was full of clothes, old clothes from different times, objects from past years that belonged to Diana and mattered enough for her to keep it.
Digging through it carefully, Diana removed the clothes out of the way, reaching all the way to the bottom. Until she retrieved a pair of silver bracelets; she turned to Natalia.
"I found this in Greece during the 60's," Diana said, picking Natalia's arms. "They are a relic from my people, the amazons, probably lost there for thousands of years after they left to Themyscira."
Diana slid the bracelets on Natalia's arms, closing the with a CLIK.
"Long ago, humanity was lost. They were corrupted by Ares and thrown in war against themselves. And for a long time there was just blood, brother killing brother, a never ending war. Until Zeus created the amazons. "She got up, allowing Natalia to study the bracelets. "The amazons influenced mankind with love and stopped the wars and for a time there was peace… Until Ares came back. The amazons were enslaved and they suffered that fate for centuries, until my mother, Queen Hippolyta, lead a rebellion that finally freed them, allowing the amazons to go to Themyscira."
She pointed at the bracelets on Natalia's arms.
"Those are called the Bracelets of Submission. Every amazon has a pair. They are a reminder of the years of enslavement but, even more important than that, they are a reminder of what the amazons went through and managed to survive."
Diana kneeled and put her hands on Natalia's shoulders.
"I cannot make the things that happened to you go away, no matter how much I wished I could. But you survived. And you came out victorious. Just like an amazon."
Natalia raised her arms, her eyes fixed on the Bracelets of Submission.
"You deserve them. And you deserve to be called amazon. Never forget that."
London – February 4th, 1944
Colonel Chester Phillips watched as Sir Patrick made his speech to the war council, saying the same things they had already said a thousand times before, that HYDRA needed to be fought with all their might. That the SSR needed to focus their resources fully against them, otherwise they would lose the war. Basically, Sir Patrick was repeating word by word what he already said a few days ago, to the same people.
This time, however, they had the remains of the biggest tank and the pieces of the most powerful cannon any of them had ever seen in their lives displayed in the room, giving them just a taste of the power HYDRA had in their hands.
It made all the difference. This time, the officials weren't interrupting Sir Patrick at every moment or not paying attention. This time they were hanging on his every word, moving their eyes from him only to look at the intimidating weapons in the room and then quickly back at him. Captain Rogers and his men did a very good job indeed.
Knowing that they had already won this battle, Colonel Phillips quietly got up and left the room. He had been there for hours, enough to realize that the Allies would give them anything they wanted now; something about the knowledge that HYDRA was building weapons strong enough to wipe out entire cities in one shot made them strangely compliant to their requests.
Of course, that wasn't everything the Howling Commandos had uncovered during their brief trip to Poland. No, it wasn't enough for them to just find a HYDRA base, a new tank model that was incredibly more powerful than any other vehicle they could build and a cannon that could vaporize towns; they also found out all atrocities happening in the Nazi's concentration camps.
There had been whispers of it. "Undesirables" being rounded up and taken to especial prisons. There was no way to keep such a big number of people just disappearing a secret, so it wasn't like the Allies knew nothing about it; they just weren't sure how bad it was. And by the documents the Howling Commandos had uncovered, alongside the living witnesses they brought, they could reach the conclusion that is was beyond bad.
The Nazis were exterminating people. It was as simple as that.
That proof sent ripples across all layers of the Allied forces. They knew the Nazis were bad guys, but this? This was worse than anyone could imagine. And it had to be stopped. While the SSR got their wish to stay focused in the war against HYDRA, Colonel Phillips already had his own ideas about how to help in that particular fight.
But that was a thought for later. Right now, Colonel Phillips had other things in mind. Like, for example, finding out how the hell did the Howling Commandos accomplish what they did in Lublin; he knew how talented they were, he knew how dangerous Steve Rogers was, but to send that small amount of men to a city to accomplish a dangerous mission and have them come back not only successful in that regard, but also successful in liberating Lublin from the Nazis? That was incredible. And, frankly, unbelievable.
He had to know exactly what happened.
It didn't take long for Colonel Phillips to arrive at the SSR's HQ and he quickly made his way to the briefing room, where Barnes, Dugan, Stark and Agent Carter were waiting for him.
"So? Are we finally free to win the war?" asked Stark, the first to see him coming in.
Colonel Phillips closed the door before answering: "Sir Patrick is making sure of that."
They all cheered for a second and it was a happiness he shared with them; the SSR was formed to fight HYDRA, after all. They had a job and they all wanted to see it completed.
"Enough about that now," Colonel Phillips said, sitting down. "You have been debriefed already, but I want to know exactly what happened in Lublin. I want to know precisely how did you manage to do what you did."
Barnes and Dugan looked at each other, as if talking with their eyes.
"Well, remember when you said that Diana could possibly destroy any chances of success in the mission because she wasn't used to following orders, sir?" Barnes asked. "Turns out you were both right and wrong."
"How so?"
"Diana really isn't that good when it comes to following orders," Barnes continued, smiling. "It took her a matter of minutes to disagree with Steve and do whatever the hell she wanted to do. Can't say I blame her, even Steve changed his mind, but, well, it didn't take her long to disobey, you were right about that."
"And how was I wrong, then?"
"She did disobey Steve," Barnes answered, "but that girl is so damn powerful that it didn't really matter, sir. Steve made the call to continue with the mission because we didn't have the men to free Lublin and Majdanek, but it turned out we didn't need numbers; we had quality."
"How strong is she?" Agent Carter asked, looking curious.
"Very," Barnes breathed, obviously impressed. "I'll say this much: Steve is to her as we are to him. She is like a super-super-soldier. The things she did… I mean, Steve is impressive, you saw him in action, but I have never seen someone tossing a tank to the air with their bare hands."
"A tank?!" Stark exclaimed.
"A tank, vehicles… Nothing in her way was left standing," Dugan added. "That little woman is a force of nature."
"She managed to defend herself and Majdanek from the weapon HYDRA built to destroy entire cities," Barnes said, as if he still didn't believe in it. "I'm going to be completely honest with you, sir, none of us would've made out alive, much less accomplished the mission, without her. What we did, we did because of Diana. She really is a Wonder Woman."
Dugan seemed to agree. Colonel Phillips could just stare at them, thinking about what he had just heard. And the fact was, he didn't know what conclusion to take from this. He knew the woman Rogers found was enhanced, but how could someone have so much power? Stark and Agent Carter seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"It makes you think, doesn't it?" Barnes started again, not really talking to anyone. "If she wasn't telling us the truth all along, about being made by a god."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Stark, immediately. "Just because we found out she is a little stronger than we thought it doesn't mean she was actually telling the truth."
Colonel Phillips agreed wholeheartedly with Stark, but Barnes and Dugan didn't seem to. That was odd. And it made him think some more. What they saw had left an impression, that much was clear. But enough to turn those two reasonable men into believers? Something told him that he was missing an important part of the puzzle.
"There is something else though, sir," Barnes said, looking a little uncertain if he wanted to say anything else. "She, um, seems to believe that the Red Skull is the God of War himself. The Greek one, I mean, Ares. And she said it's her mission to end him."
When did his life become so strange?
Steve opened the door to the briefing room and entered as fast as he could, knowing very well he was already late. Diana, much more relaxed, followed him, licking a cone of ice-cream with a happy smile.
"Sir, I'm sorry! We got held back at the–"
"Relax, Captain Rogers," answered Colonel Phillips, barely looking at him. "There is no rush, we are all busy men, after all."
"And the line to the ice-cream stand is long," added Stark, smirking at Steve, obviously guessing the reason they were late. "How do you like it, Princess?"
"It's wonderful! Man's World should be very proud!"
Steve couldn't help but to smile. Super-Soldier Serum, a cannon that could destroy entire cities, a tank so powerful that it was basically a moving fortress, planes, ground and aquatic vehicles, fire weapons… And it was the ice-cream invention that managed to impress Diana.
It said a lot about how she saw the world; he just wished more people were like that.
"Get closer, you two, we have a lot to discuss," Colonel Phillips said, pointing at the big map on the table. "Sir Patrick managed to get all the help we needed to fight HYDRA. Of course, he only did that because you accomplished your mission, so congratulations. Unfortunately, there is no time to celebrate. Each minute we spend here, doing nothing, is an extra minute HYDRA can use to gather the material and build another Mjölnir. We cannot allow that to happen."
All of them, Steve, Diana, Peggy, Bucky, Howard and Dugan looked serious now, the previous playfulness gone.
"We have the location of some HYDRA bases and, maybe more important, we have the list of material needed to build those weapons," Colonel Phillips continued. "What we are going to do is hit all that and wipe them off the map. The Allied Forces are going to work in cutting the supply chain, the places where they can gather equipment and the people required to build the weapons and we are going to concentrate against the bases."
The bases were marked on the big map, most of them by Steve's own hands, and all eyes were upon them. It was good that the rest of the Allies realized the danger HYDRA represented, because the situation would quickly get out of control otherwise. The number of known HYDRA bases was big and Steve knew, by experience, that each of them was well defended.
They had soldiers more than ready to die for their cause, advanced weapons and equipment, well-built defenses and, more importantly, a leader who was smart, committed and evil.
It was a fight that would decide the future of the world, maybe even its very existence.
"Now, I know we are up to the task," Colonel Phillips said. "But make no mistake, this is not going to be easy. The Red Skull is a crazy bastard, but he is a damn good commander and his HYDRA is fiercely loyal. And that is why we need to defeat them all."
Suddenly, Colonel Phillips turned, his eyes fixed on Diana. The contrast between the hardened soldier, fully clad in his military uniform, and the small woman, using her civilian clothes and licking an ice-cream was almost laughable.
"You, Miss Prince or Diana or – what is it they were calling you? – Wonder Woman," he started, getting closer, looking at Diana with a very serious expression. "You disobeyed your commander in the middle of a mission. You disobeyed a direct order and placed yourself and everyone else in danger. We could have lost everything. Your lives, the mission and, with it, the war. You do know that, right?"
Diana looked back at him, not looking intimidated in the least.
"I know that, sir," she answered, simply.
The silence stretched for almost a minute as both of them stared at each other. Until Colonel Phillips nodded.
"Good," he said to Steve and everyone else's surprise. "Means you are not crazy or stupid, just stubborn." He sighed, turning back to the map. "I don't know how you did what you did. I don't know how you are so powerful. You say you were made by the gods? That you are hunting Ares, the God of War, and that he is masquerading as Schmidt? I don't really care if that's true or not, but if you want to shove a sword through Schmidt's heart I will do everything I can to help you do it."
Now even Diana looked surprised, her ice-cream forgotten.
"You are stubborn, but you are also a damn good warrior. And we need every warrior we can find right now." He looked at her again. "Can I count on you?"
Diana's fierce smile was answer enough.
Diana's eyes roamed the map, stopping at each marked location. Steve, they told her, was the one who identified most HYDRA bases there, a valuable piece of information he acquired when saving the men who would later become the Howling Commandos from one of the bases. Soon, they would be hitting all of them, wiping them off the map one by one, with the help of the Allied forces.
Her attention, however, wasn't on the bases right now; it was on the other places marked on the map. Places they acquired form Majdanek's archives when they searched the camp. Locations of other Death Camps, much like Majdanek.
The SSR responsibility was to fight HYDRA, Diana understood that. That whole mission served to remind the Allies of that. So, by definition, the concentration camps weren't their responsibility right now. Colonel Phillips and Steve had guaranteed that the Allies would send forces to save those people and Diana had no reason to believe they weren't as outraged as she was with this, but it didn't change the fact that she wanted to be there with them.
"It is unthinkable, isn't it?" spoke a voice behind Diana.
She knew she wasn't alone in the briefing room, but as far as she could see, she was the only one by the table. Shocked that she was apparently so distracted that someone was able to surprise her, Diana turned quickly, only to be confronted by Sir Patrick. Diana almost laughed, imagining just how she could not hear him or his cane.
He smiled at her, as if apologizing for the startle, and stopped by her side, also looking at the map.
"I still can't believe how low humanity can sink," he whispered. "I thought I saw horrors during the Great War, but apparently it was just a warmup for the true terror."
Images that Diana witnessed in Majdanek flashed in her mind for a moment, making her wince.
"I cannot… I cannot believe humanity is capable of that," she answered. "There is something else, some greater evil behind all this, it has to be."
Sir Patrick nodded, smiling sadly.
"Yes, I've heard, you believe all this was caused by Ares."
Diana sighed, tired. "You think it's silly as well, right? Well, I know it's tru–"
"You misunderstand me, Miss Prince," Sir Patrick interrupted her. "I would never make light of anyone's faith, certainly not the faith of a woman who did so much good already." He looked at her surprised expression. "No, you should never apologize or hide what you truly believe, no matter what others say in response."
"But?" Diana asked.
"But… But I, unfortunately, can't believe that all this evil is because of one person, no matter how powerful said person is."
"He is the God of War," Diana argued. "Not just anyone."
"But he is not the one killing people industriously, is he?" Sir Patrick countered. "Humans are killing humans. Would a being, even a god as powerful as Ares, be so powerful as to make humanity simply cast aside all their morals and just do this? Or is it more likely that humans are just inherently flawed? Easily corrupted… Evil."
"Mankind is good!" Diana exclaimed, simply not believing how a human could think so low of his own race.
Sir Patrick looked down, his eyes passing across the several marked death camps.
"I'd like to believe that, Miss Prince. And I commend you to believe as fiercely as you do. I just… hope that your faith in mankind is not shattered by what you will indubitably see in the coming battles."
Diana didn't know why, but she felt a deep cold inside her chest when Sir Patrick said that. Before she could dwell on that, Peggy approached them.
"Sir Patrick, I wanted to thank you again for all the help you provided us," she said, respectfully. "We could not have achieved this without you."
"My dear, you do not need to thank me at all. We all fight the battles we can. I fought mine so the SSR can fight theirs. We are all together in this, after all."
Peggy smiled. "Still, there weren't many willing to aid us, sir, and you did."
She watched Peggy talk to Sir Patrick for a few moments, barely paying attention to what was being said, and when Peggy finally turned to leave she reached and touched her arm.
"Peggy, can we talk? In private."
Clearly curious, Peggy nodded and guided Diana to a room in the back, closing the door behind them.
"What is it?" she asked.
Diana fidgeted for a few moments, wondering exactly how she would say what she needed to say, until she just blurted out: "I kissed Steve!"
Peggy was paralyzed. She heard the words, she understood their meaning, but somehow her mind simply didn't catch up with them. So she just stared back at Diana, motionless, not capable of answering or even thinking.
That only made Diana fidget nervously even more.
"It wasn't Steve's fault!" Diana continued, anxiously. "It was all me. He was unconscious, after we destroyed Mjölnir and I-I was worried. I thought he was going to die! And I… I couldn't do anything. I was afraid and-and he looked so hurt and I… I'm sorry, Peggy. I don't know why I did it, but I-I… I just kissed him."
She said the last words so low that Peggy almost didn't hear it. The meaning was clear, though and Peggy just didn't know how to respond to that. Diana had kissed the man she liked. She and Steve weren't dating, he didn't have any kind of obligation to her and she didn't have any obligation to him. Logically speaking, she had no reason to be upset at all.
The last time she saw Steve kissing someone, however, she was so pissed she fired a gun at him.
Against his vibranium shield, of course, she would never harm Steve, but the message was clear to both of them. Unfortunately, rationality and emotion rarely mixed. She liked Steve and she knew Steve liked her. While they weren't in a relationship they had a bond. To Peggy that meant it was only a matter of time before they became a couple and she was sure Steve thought the same way.
He was the only man Peggy ever imagined herself with. Not because he was Captain America, not because he was handsome and famous, but because of what he was in the inside. Steve was a good man, honorable, decent, willing to do anything for the sake of those who needed help. And he was like that even when the only means he had to fight was to get punched a lot.
Peggy waited her whole life to find someone like Steve. And now this happened.
"Why?" Peggy asked, just as Diana was about to talk again.
Diana closed her mouth with a snap. And didn't say anything in response. She just kept staring at Peggy, her eyes wide and confused, like a scared deer.
"Why?" Peggy repeated, louder, not yelling but firm. "Why did you do this?"
"I-I don't–"
"You do know, you just don't want to say it," Peggy interrupted, harshly, moving closer. "You were the one who kissed him, Diana, you said it yourself. You made the choice. You were the one who touched him, who leaned over him, who–"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Diana exclaimed.
"THEN FIND OUT!" Peggy screamed back. "This lasso of yours makes you tell the truth, doesn't it? Try it!"
Diana's hands were shaking when she grabbed the lasso on her waist, fast, as if she did it in reflex instead of a planned act, and when her fingers touched it she too stopped moving. For a moment, Peggy thought she would release it, but then she closed her eyes and took a long breath; her hand closed tighter around it.
There was almost a minute of silence and then Diana opened her eyes again.
"I love him," Diana whispered. There were tears falling down her cheeks as she looked at Peggy, but she held her stare. "I love him, Peggy. I-I don't know when it happened, I didn't mean for it to happen, but–"
"But you love him," Peggy finished for her, lowering her gaze.
Diana looked down as well, ashamed, but then she approached Peggy.
"I love him, Peggy, but I will step away if you love him as well," Diana stated, her hand still wrapped around the lasso. "You are my friend and I have no doubt that I will come to love you like a sister in time. So if you ask me, if you truly love Steve, I will step away, you have my word."
She lifted the Lasso of Hestia in front of her, offering it to Peggy.
"Do you want me to step away? Answer me truly."
Peggy didn't want to hold that lasso. She was afraid of it, afraid of what it would force her to confront. But Peggy Carter didn't back away from anything out of fear. Extending her hand, Peggy grabbed the lasso, her hand touching Diana's.
Like her, she took a deep breath, feeling the warm golden rope under her fingers.
"I… I love Steve." She closed her eyes again, feeling the warmth coming from the lasso envelop her entire body. "But I am not in love with him yet."
Peggy widened her eyes, surprised that those words came out of her mouth. She looked from the lasso to Diana. The amazon smiled at her, kindly, the tears still marking her face.
"I have no doubt you will grow to be in love with him," Diana said, her voice very low. "And that you two would be very happy together. That's why I want to know, from your mouth, if you want me to step away."
"Can you?" Peggy asked.
Diana looked in Peggy's eyes, conveying exactly how truthful she was. "Steve was the one who showed me the world was bigger than Themyscira. He fought for my sisters in Paradise Island, tried to help them when HYDRA attacked. He was there when I was mourning my aunt. He taught me that I could… That I could do nothing or do something and that was what made me leave Themyscira to help. He reminded me of the purpose amazons have in this world and hiding away isn't it."
She cleaned the tears on her face with her sleeves.
"I didn't mean for this to happen, Peggy, please believe me. But–"
"He is easy to love," Peggy said, smiling sadly. Diana nodded.
Peggy looked at Diana, seeing not the powerful warrior that had almost single-handedly liberated Lublin from the Nazis, but a woman in love. Just a girl, much like herself, full of fears and doubt, someone in love for the first time. More than that, she saw a friend, a true friend, who would turn her back on the possibility of being with the person she loved because it would hurt a woman she only knew for a brief time, but already considered a good friend.
Yes, Peggy could see Steve falling in love for her too, quite easily.
Without even noticing, Peggy felt her vision becoming blurred and her cheeks getting wet. She closed her eyes, trying to cut the flow of tears, but that didn't help at all. Timidly, as if asking for permission, Diana lifted her hands and dried her face, her gesture slow and kind.
"You are my friend too, Diana," she said, before she lost her courage. "And I don't want to see you in pain."
"I don't want to see you in pain either, Peggy," Diana answered, still holding her face. "It breaks my heart to see you like this and I'm… I'm regretting to have said anything about this at all. I should've just stepped away."
"No, friends don't lie to each other," Peggy said, also grabbing Diana's hands, the lasso wrapped around their fingers. "You-you were right to tell me. I might not have liked what you said, but I always want to know what goes in your mind." She looked down at the lasso. "And liking or not, this forced me to confront some things about myself."
And the thing Peggy was forced to confront was that she didn't love Steve, not romantically. He was her friend, she admired him, she was attracted to him, but all that didn't amount into love, at least not yet. One day it would, if she allowed herself, Peggy had no doubt. But now?
Maybe it was a good thing to have touched the Lasso of Hestia.
"I won't ask you to ignore your feelings for Steve, Diana," Peggy said, suddenly. "You are in love with him and I'm not. If he… If he feels the same, you have my blessing."
"But–"
"Don't get me wrong, Diana, I am sad. I'm hurting. And for a moment there I almost punched you, even if it would end up harming me more than you… But I do consider you a friend and I don't like to see you unhappy. Nor do I want to see Steve unhappy."
Before she could react, Diana hugged her. For a moment, Peggy wanted to be anywhere but there, in the arms of the woman that had effectively just "stolen" a man she liked. But when she felt Diana's tears touching her shoulders all anger left her and she began to cry as well.
Peggy didn't know how long they stayed there, but she knew, in that moment, that while she lost the possibility of being more than just friends with Steve, she had just gained a sister in Diana.
Maybe that wasn't so bad after all.
Afghanistan – February 13th, 2010
Tony Stark was starting to get bored. There was nothing but sand to look at through the windows of the military vehicle, the soldiers escorting him were struck silent by his awesomeness and the path home seemed to become longer and longer because of that; he was actually starting to regret not letting Rhodey ride with him in this car just to piss him off, because he would at least have someone to talk to now.
He took a sip of his whisky, savoring it, as he heard Back in Black on the radio. His presentation of his newest weapon, the Jericho Missile, had been perfect, as always, and everybody was suitably impressed by it. No way not to be, when he was the one who developed it. It seemed the United States Armed Forces would have one more toy to play with and Stark Industries would have a lot more money in the foreseeable future.
Drinking another sip, Tony started to wonder, not for the first time, what his father would think of his company right now. Would Howard Stark be proud of what he managed to do? It hadn't been easy, that much was certain. After his parent's death, Obadiah had taken lead of Stark Industries while he finished his studies, but that was only for a short time; everybody knew, expected, him to come back and take the company back, to manage it like his father did.
For most of his life, that was all Tony wanted, a chance to prove himself. A chance to get out of his father's shadow and for once in his life be his own person. A chance of recognition. To be better or at least as good as his father.
Except that when he got his chance all that didn't really matter anymore.
The letters he got from that woman on his parent's funeral, the letters written by his father to her, were proof enough that Howard Stark loved him. Proof that he saw Tony's talent and potential. Proof that, even if he had never said anything, he had noticed Tony. To someone else, those letters might've seemed meaningless, but they meant the world to Tony.
Diana Prince. That was the name of his father's friend. Or at least the name she introduced herself with. From time to time Tony thought about her, remembering that day; he did, after all, owe quite a bit to her. And yet, what he knew about her couldn't fill a notebook's page.
He asked his old butler, Jarvis, about her, since he seemed to know her. Of course, sarcastic as always, Jarvis simply answered that "she wasn't looking or interested". And despite all his questions, he never really got an answer from him. Tony was known for being stubborn, though, so he kept looking. He wanted to know who that woman was, how she knew his dad and, more importantly, why did Howard Stark seem to be so respectful of her.
That she was, still to this date, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen didn't hurt his thirst for answers either.
It wasn't as if he went full stalker on her, he wasn't a creep, but even so the amount of answers he got was disappointing. It was almost as if she was hiding or if someone was purposely erasing her tracks. Tony did consider the fact that she might be a criminal, but when he made that question to Jarvis his butler almost died laughing so much; a true concern, since back then he was already pretty old.
The years passed, things happened and his drive for answers lowered; his curiosity, however, remained and seemed to pop up whenever he thought of his father. No amount of thinking about it, however, was going to do any good, so he tried to change his thoughts to distract himself.
"I feel like you are driving me to a court-martial," he said, suddenly, looking at the silent soldiers in the car with him. "This is crazy, what did I do? I feel like you are going to pull over and snuff me. What? You are not allowed to talk?" Nobody answered, still watching him with wide eyes. He looked at the soldier by his side. "Hey, Forest!"
"We can talk, sir," the soldier answered, fast, still not looking at him.
"Oh, I see. So it's personal."
"No, you intimidate them," the driver, a woman, answered.
Tony pretended to be surprised. "Good God, you are a woman?! I honestly… I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."
The soldier began to laugh and Tony felt their nervousness drop. He loved being famous and powerful, but sometimes it annoyed him how much it separated him from people. Not that he liked or wanted to talk with most people, but still…
"I'm an airman," the driver said.
"You have, actually, excellent bone structure there," Tony pointed out. "I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" This seemed to completely break the ice and everybody began to laugh openly. "Come on, it's okay, laugh!"
"Sir, I have a question to ask," the soldier sitting by the driver said.
"Yes, please!" Tony answered, drinking from his glass.
"Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's Maxim cover models?" the soldier asked, impressed.
Tony smiled and took his sun glasses off. "That is an excellent question. Yes and no. 'March' and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately the Christmas cover was twins," he answered, smugly. "Anything else? You are kidding me with the hand up, right?"
The soldier quickly lowered his hand. "Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"
"Yes, it's very cool," Tony answered and the soldier smiled like a little kid, taking his camera and passing it to the soldier by the driver.
"I don't want to see this on your MySpace page," Tony warned, as they got closer for the picture; the soldier made a 'peace sign'. "Please, no gang signs." The soldier quickly lowered his hand. "No, throw it up, I'm kidding." The 'peace sign' was back, with the full smile of the soldier. "Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."
"Come on, hurry up!" the soldier said. "Just click it, don't change any settings, just click it!"
And at that moment the car driving in front of them exploded. All of them jumped in shock and the driver quickly stopped the car to avoid a collision.
"What's going on?!" Tony asked, his adrenalin pumping.
"Contact, left!"
A flurry of bullets hit the vehicle, the gunshots sounding incredibly loud.
"What have we got?!" Tony yelled, confused and afraid, as the driver opened her door and was quickly put down.
"Jimmy, stay with Stark!" the soldier by the driver ordered, as he opened his door and left the vehicle.
"Stay down!" the soldier yelled, pushing Tony against the seat; Tony didn't fight him.
He could hear more and more gunshots now, people yelling in rage and pain, soldiers falling like flies all around them.
"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy yelled, also getting out of the car.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Tony yelled. "Give me a gun!"
"Stay here!" Jimmy yelled in response, closing the door, one second before being drilled by bullets alongside the car windows.
Tony flinched when the bullets impacted the interior of the vehicle, his ears ringing loud. Terrified, he looked around, seeing the soldiers escorting him in the other cars dying as well. Desperately, Tony opened the door and jumped out, not knowing what the hell he was going to do yet.
It was a war zone. There was fire everywhere, explosions, smoke, bullets flying. He started to run, searching for cover, looking for anything at all that could help him, his expansive suit feeling uncomfortable as ever as he fled. Yelling, he jumped behind some rocks, hearing bullets hitting them as he did it, and picked his cell to call for help. But before he could, a missile landed just by his side.
The last thing he saw before the explosion was the "Stark Industries" logo printed on it.
Hey, guys, new chapter! Hope you like it! Review, favorite, follow… Thanks for everything!
