Checkmate
As Hippolyta, Diana and the royal guard waited outside of the palace patiently all eyes were still on them. It was almost like they were the traitors. Diana was getting more impatient the more she stood there waiting on her mother's supposed sister. As she had her arms folded she paced around making a circle of her own footprints.
"They are taking too long," Diana said and her mother turned to face her with a frown.
"I see patience is not your middle name, Diana."
Before Diana could respond a group of guards opened the doors and the one they met earlier came forward to greet the crowd. He bowed slightly at Hippolyta and she was a little taken back by his politeness.
"The Queen wishes to see you," he went up the stairs and Hippolyta along with her crew followed slowly. The palace looked a lot like her palace above ground. Everything was almost exactly the same, minus the portraits of Diana in the long hallways.
As everyone approached closer Hippolyta was able to see Antiope sitting on a throne waiting. She couldn't read her expression to see if she was angry, excited or just...anything for that matter. But one thing she did notice was a young woman with black locks standing next to Antiope. She resembled Diana greatly and even had the same eyes and lips as her. Hippolyta was wondering who she was and if Antiope actually mated with one of the men down here.
Finally face to face Antiope stood from her throne and said, "leave us now," the guards dispersed quickly and the doors were shut. Only silence was presented at this moment. Silence.
"Ah sister, it has been quite some time since we last saw one another," Antiope walked towards Hippolyta with a smile and she hugged her elder sister tightly.
"Indeed. I have so many questions and you probably won't have any answers," Hippolyta said with slight remorse.
Antiope looked behind her sister at her entourage that was present. She frowned, "must we have your royal guards here, sister? Can we not speak in private?"
Hippolyta looked behind her and nodded at Phillipus for them to vacate the room. All of the amazons left the room and exited the palace along with the male guards.
"And her too," Antiope added noting that Diana was still in the room.
Hippolyta turned to look back at her sister and shook her head "she stays. She is family."
Diana stepped forward standing a few feet behind her mother now. "I am her daughter. Princess Diana of Themyscira." She bowed slightly.
Antiope was shocked to hear her sister had a daughter of her own. She nodded her head accepting the greeting from the princess before her. She hadn't seen her sister for thousands of years and here she has a daughter.
"you finally laid with a man, Hippolyta?" Antiope inquired.
Hippolyta wanted to smile at that question but she kept it to herself. "Not exactly. She was gifted to me by the gods." Her eyes shifted to the young dark haired woman still standing by the throne. "Who is that if you don't mind me asking?" She pointed to the woman standing by herself.
Antiope smiled and gestured for the young lady to come forward to meet Hippolyta and...Diana.
"This is my daughter. Her name is Donna and she too was gifted to me from the gods."
Hippolyta and Diana were confused at this. The gods would not favor Antiope's betrayal to Hippolyta so why would they gift her a daughter too?
Donna held out her hand to shake with Hippolyta's and the amazon Queen stared at it for awhile before finally grabbing the woman's hand.
"I suppose you would be my aunt then, and you're my cousin?" Donna peered over to Diana who was in shock as much as her mother was.
Diana nodded her head slowly, "yes it would appear to be so."
Antiope interrupted the awkward moment, "perhaps we should go somewhere a little more private to talk amongst ourselves. We shall go to my room," she turned and started heading towards that way.
Donna smiled at Diana and followed her mother as soon as she exited. Hippolyta and Diana trailed behind carefully.
Diana whispered to her mother, "they seem to be taking this very well, mother."
Hippolyta nodded, "for now, daughter, for now."
A few minutes later a tray of tea was brought to them in Antiope's room. Donna sat next to her mother and their guests mirrored them.
"So Hippolyta I must ask this one thing," Antiope set her glass of tea on the table in front of them. "Why did you decide to just come into my world of exile? I mean, why wait until now to do so? You could have come here anytime you wanted to yet you kept me and these men locked away here."
"Well...it was really Diana who persuaded me to make, I guess you would call it, amends with you and these men down here. She convinced me that I have lived too long not facing my problems as a queen, as a sister. It was time I came here to speak with you."
Antiope nodded as she sipped from her warm glass once more. She folded her arms and cleared her throat, "so your daughter convinced you to do this? I could not even convince you to come swimming with me when we were young women. Now we are considered ancient and here you are, trying to make 'amends' as you call it. Why is that?"
Hippolyta could understand her sister's resentment to her just popping up in here out of nowhere. She sighed heavily, "Themyscira has changed a lot over the past few years. Diana and I have created a program for men to come to the island to learn of our amazonian ways and culture. It has served our sisters and the men very well..."
Antiope stopped her right there with a hand, "and I suppose that Diana convinced you to do this as well?"
Diana intervened this time. She wasn't going to just sit here and let her mother get reamed by herself since it was mostly her idea to come down here in the first place.
"it was both of our ideas and it has helped fill the gap of the Amazon's hatred and dislike towards men. It also provides education to these men who do not know what kind of people we are and how we operate. Soon we will open a program for women to attend as well."
"Fascinating," Antiope smiled and then her eyes gazed her elder sister who was looking nervous, shameful, and very anxious. "But I asked my sister, not you, princess."
There was a tense silence in the room. All women were staring at each other intensely. Hippolyta slapped her hands on her thighs gently and inwardly sighed. She knew that this meeting started out at nicely but it probably wouldn't end very nicely.
"Antiope, I am sorry for keeping you here for all these years, but what I did was to protect my people and my island. It was also to protect you. I loved you and I still do, you are after all, my sister. I could have exiled you but I kept you here so you would not betray anyone else and cause more grief than necessary."
Antiope stood feeling her blood boil beneath her skin, "Keeping me here all these years surrounded with the one thing I hate the most, men! How could you do that to me? It would have been best to kill me so I wouldn't have to live here under your will!"
"I did you a favor, Antiope. I spared you from the wrath of the gods. I did so much for you!" Hippolyta stood facing her blonde sister.
"So you want me to thank you? That is not going to happen! You left me here without any contact other than the men here. I have raised these men since they were little boys. I trained them as you would train your amazon sisters. I created a utopia for these men and you just come in here wanting to 'talk'. You have the audacity to come here unannounced and expect me to just forget about everything you've done?"
Hippolyta folded her arms, "you have misunderstood my meaning for coming to speak with you. I did not come here to make you remember everything that has happened to you, but Antiope, you deserved it! You deserved your exile fair and square. I could not stop your hatred and it saddened me. I love you like all of my sisters. I have even kept the Bana on Themyscira despite them hating me for what I did to you."
There was a long pause and Diana looked up to her mother who she knew that was feeling a little uncomfortable and very vulnerable. She had never seen her mother act like this before and it almost was a bit sad to see her in a state such as this.
"All hurt feelings aside," Diana began and Antiope turned her gaze to her sister's daughter. "My mother wanted to come here to perhaps make peace with you and all my brothers. She has kept this a secret from many of our sisters including myself. It has torn her apart from the beginning of this chaos. Would it not be better to rejoice as brothers and sisters instead of reliving hurtful pasts and emotions?"
Antiope looked at her sister again who was not looking very powerful at this moment.
"We were here all along, Hippolyta, yet you let us fall in your dark path. We could have ruled Themyscira together and made great Queens."
Hippolyta furrowed her eyebrows, "I am a great Queen. It was you who could not be stopped. Hatred is not the way and I am sorry if you still feel that way, if you do."
Antiope sat down finally and stopped staring down her sister. "I have learned many things living down here with these men," she began. "I am not related to a single one, but I feel like they are all my sons. I have raised them once their mothers left as soon as they were of age. I helped build this place into what it is today. I may have had a past of hating men thousands of years ago, and I still do not trust them totally, but I know that these men are good. They are good men and I treat them equally as if they were my own sisters."
She sighed and continued, "I thought that you had forgotten about me all those years ago. I often thought about you and now that you are here, I can only thing of our past together. My heart was bitter and I soon forgot what you were starting to look like. Your face became a distant memory for me and so I found solace in reading, training and now I have Donna here as my daughter, a princess." She smiled softly. "But she does not replace you and you are here in front of me right now. I don't know if I can forgive you as a person, but I will forgive you as a sister."
Hippolyta smiled at her sister's finally warm heartedness she had always known was deep inside of her all along. "I have forgiven your treason and betrayal as not only an amazon but as a sister too. I forgave you eons ago and hope that you can one day forgive me for keeping you away from life, sunlight, your sisters and myself. It is a new Themyscira now and I want to welcome you and the your male amazons to more fertile ground."
Diana stepped into the conversation, "come to the palace for a celebration this evening. Everyone is invited and I will arrange everything."
Lara and Jor returned to Krypton quickly. They stepped into their home a little drained from being on Themyscira and having those intense conversations with their son and Diana as well as Hippolyta. They went to their sitting area and sat on their sofa just staring out at the large red sun before them.
"Do you think that Diana will comply with your offer?" Jor-El poured glasses of water for himself and his wife.
Lara sighed, "I do not know, but she must. It will save Kal's reputation with Krypton."
"What are we going to tell Faora?" Jor asked a bit concerned about that since they landed on Themyscira.
"We must not tell her that Diana is pregnant. We will simply tell her that Kal-El is not interested."
"If we give her that reason then there will be questions coming from the Zod and Lot families. They will want their turn in line even though Kal has refused all of their daughters."
Lara sipped her water and raised an eyebrow, "you are right, Jor. We have already threatened him with exile from his own planet. It did not seem to faze him in the least bit."
"Perhaps we should think of plan B Lara," Jor sat next to her wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders.
Lara looked at her husband a little confused. They hadn't talked about another plan together at all other than the marriage proposal between Kal and Diana.
"And what might that be?" she was curious enough.
He looked out at the red sun and nodded his head, "their child will be half Kryptonian, which means that child will be an heir to Kal's throne. They will have no choice but to live here together as a married couple."
Lara laughed, "are you serious? The council will never approve of such a thing."
"Perhaps we shall consult them about it then," Jor said sipping his water. "Their child will be a very powerful being, Lara. Think of all the things this child could do for Krypton. He...or she, will make a great ruler of Krypton."
Lara stood up shaking her head, "you suggest that we use Kal's child, our grandchild, for political gain?"
"Maybe." He nodded.
"That is...a fine idea, but we must not speak of this to Kal or Diana."
"Of course not."
Diana went back to the palace by herself as her mother was showing the island to Antiope and Donna. She was giving commands to her sisters to prepare to tonight. She hoped this would go well and that this meeting will not get out to the Bana amazons either. The male amazons were still not willing to leave their only home that have known all their lives until tonight. Diana insisted that her sisters show them around, but they have not, not because they didn't want to, but the men just stayed put refusing to budge. No matter, she thought, they will still attend, she hoped. Since everyone on the island was invited to the celebration tonight, the guests would be kept in and outside of the palace, covering the royal gardens. Diana made sure the garden was cleaned and cleared out of any unnecessary plants.
Kal walked into a flurry of amazons inside of the palace and he saw Diana bossing them around. Something she was definitely good at doing. He passed a few amazons and smiled at them lightly as he approached Diana.
"What is going on here, princess?" he smiled gazing around at the chaos inside of the palace's main room.
Diana turned and smiled, "we are having a celebration for my mother's and her sister's reunion. My brothers are also invited."
"Wow, brothers. That is something I could not get used to hearing," he wrapped his arm about her waist.
Diana brushed his arm off her body, "not here Kal. Nobody knows yet and I'd like to keep it that way."
He could understand that so he kept his hands to himself as much as didn't want to. It was really hard to resist Diana at all moments.
"How are you feeling today, Diana?" he thought he should ask.
Diana ignored him and continued talking with her sisters in her native language.
"Diana?"
"What is it, Kal?" she turned to face him finally.
He sighed, "I asked how you were feeling."
"Oh," she blinked, "I'm fine, Kal. No need to worry about me," she smiled.
He didn't really like that answer so he proceeded. He followed her as she walked over to the tables to make sure the linen was aligned correctly. He put a hand on her shoulder softly.
"did you eat today? I mean did you eat properly?"
Diana was starting to get aggravated with Kal's questions. "I will eat later tonight, Kal."
"Later? So you didn't eat anything today?" He followed her again to the tables where flowers were placed and she was rearranging the flowers in the vases.
"I don't see why this is such a problem. Why do you keep following me? It is rather annoying." She left the table and went outside to oversee the gardens. He followed her once again.
"Well I think it is a problem. You're not taking care of yourself, Diana and I just want to make sure you're feeling okay. Is that so horrible?" He folded his arms.
Diana turned and had a displeasing look on her face. "You're not my keeper, Kal. Now leave me alone, please. I am very busy or can you not see that?" She looked out to the gardens again and asked one of her sisters to trim the flower beds on the east side.
Kal was a little shocked by Diana's sudden irritation and brashness with him. He pulled her aside in the shoulder gently and she slapped his hand off her shoulder.
"Kal! I said to leave me alone. I have had enough of Kryptonians as of right now. I don't need you following me asking me how I am doing!" She left and went back inside of the palace to look at everything else that was supposed to be decorated.
He trailed behind her and put his hands on his hips feeling more than irritated at Diana right now. "I didn't know that you would act like this. I just care about you."
Diana turned with an irate face, "do you not know what 'leave me alone' means? Do I need to spell it out for you? You want to know how I feel right now? I am very annoyed right now and a little on edge. Yesterday was difficult enough dealing with your parents and now you're following me like a parrot."
"Diana, I just..." he began as he was calming himself down. He had seen Diana act like this before, but not towards him since they first met.
"It's the same every day. I feel horrible, just like everyday I've felt for the last two weeks. There you have your answer now please, I have work to do. Can you leave?" She had her arms folded looking very angry at the moment.
Kal sighed and he left without any words so Diana could finish her 'work' as she called it.
Now with Kal gone Diana was able to focus a little better now. Donna was watching from the palace entrance at what happened between Diana and that tall man she saw him pass through the palace doors earlier. She had told her mother that she was going to the palace to explore her new surroundings now. Deciding to approach Diana slowly she watched as all the amazons worked together to prepare for tonight. She was quite unsure of Diana and these amazons as she had only known men her entire life. She was told many things about Hippolyta, and she didn't trust that woman. And now there was her daughter, who she didn't know what to think about just yet.
"Who was that?" Donna asked.
Diana spun around and saw Donna, almost a mirror image of herself except a few years younger than her standing right in front of her.
"What?" Diana asked confused.
"That man you just spoke so rudely to. He seemed nice, why did you dismiss him so quickly?" Donna was curious. The men she grew up with were nice and kind. She understood that men were not seen the same way on the island.
"He does not concern you." Diana said ignoring the fact that she was talking about Kal.
Donna smiled, "is he your lover?"
"Why do you say that?"
Donna shrugged her shoulders, "we grew up in two different worlds. I am just saying that he seemed nice and you shooed him away like a fly. Only lovers act like that, he is special isn't he?" she inquired.
Diana didn't have time to deal with this especially now. "Oh aren't you very talkative all of a sudden?"
Donna nodded and came around to help Diana put up a few ribbons on the large columns. "Let me assist you," she lend her hand out and Diana was reluctant to take the offer but she handed Donna the ribbon to wrap around the pole.
After they worked together to tie the ribbon around the large column Diana had this on her mind ever since they met altogether.
"Your mother said you were a gift from the gods. Is that true?" Diana asked.
"From the Egyptian gods. My mother said she had given up on the Olympians a long time ago," she nodded.
"Well...that is interesting and makes more sense now that I hear it," Diana smiled at the woman before her.
A few silent moments passed between the two and Donna noticed that Diana was a bit like her in a way, but being in two different worlds definitely shaped how they thought and acted around the different sexes.
"It has been nice talking with you, Diana. I am off to explore a little more of your island," she started to leave and then turned around, "you look a little pale. You should eat a fruit or something."
Diana watched the young princess leave and could only think that this probably wouldn't be so horrible having the rest of her extended family living here above ground that is.
AN: what is Lara and Jor's real plan? And what about the Bana amazons that will soon realize that Antiope has resurfaced? Diana and Donna's subtle reactions are up for questioning as well...enjoy :)