Chapter 35 – No Escape

Themyscira – The Dungeons

Two Alarian Guardsmen, dragging the unconscious Amazon Princess between them, descended into the lowest chamber beneath the Palace. They passed through long, dimly lit corridors where other captured Amazons, the few who had survived the initial onslaught, were imprisoned. They awaited their yet-to-be-decided fate with mixed dread and rage, recalling the defeat of millennia past, but they still possessed hope…until they saw the Alarians with their latest prisoner.

"No!" Ismene gripped the bars of her cell in shock as she saw who the Guards were escorting. "Princess! Princess Diana!"

The other Amazons in the cell, who had been lying on the ground or slumped against the walls, rushed to see, and they cursed and shouted at the Alarians. The Guards ignored them, until they disappeared down the stairs.

"How can that be?" moaned Penelope. She slumped against the stone wall of the cell, her arm bound in a crude sling. "How can she be a prisoner?"

Ismene shook her head. "She must have been taken by surprise, like the rest of us."

"Then we are truly lost," Penelope looked on the verge of tears. "There is no hope…"

"No!" Ismene cried. "We are not lost as long as one Amazon lives!" She looked around the cell at her sisters. All were wounded, some badly, but they were still alive. "We will find a way out of here. We will fight again! Do not give up hope!"

Diana heard her sisters as she pretended to be unconscious. She resisted the urge to toss aside her captors and free her sisters. She watched the ground pass beneath her through half-lidded eyes, until they stopped in front of a cell and she heard the rasp of metal against stone. Then she was thrown in, and she landed hard on her side. She heard the Alarians laugh derisively.

"Not so much of a warrior princess, is she?" One of them said.

"None of these sluts are any good," the other agreed. "We likely be rid of them all, soon."

The prison door clanged shut again and Diana lay still until she heard the sound of their boots recede completely. She quickly got up on her knees, looking around the dark cell; the only light was the dim light of the torches in the corridor outside. She turned and saw a form huddled in the corner, dressed in a torn gown, her long dark hair hanging in front of her face. The woman did not move or look up, but Diana recognized her instantly.

"Mother?"

At the voice, the woman's head spun around. Shocked, wide eyes focused on Diana's.

"My child? Is it truly you?" Hippolyta stared at Diana in horror. "Oh no…not you too…"

Diana realized she was still bound with Bruce's wire-rope from his utility belt. The rope was designed to secure the toughest of thugs in Gotham City, but not her. She tensed and snapped the cords binding her arms, then furiously freed her ankles and flung the rope away.

"Mother!"

Seeing her mother a captive had driven all other thoughts from Diana's mind, at least temporarily. She rushed to her and mother and daughter embraced. Relief flooded through Diana's being.

"Mother, are you all right?" Diana pulled back and stared at Hippolyta. There was a nasty bruise across her temple, and crusted blood but it was the only wound she could see.

"How come you to be here, child?" Hippolyta gasped, ignoring her question. "Have those dogs…did they…?" Her voice started to shake.

Diana heard the unspoken query in her voice, and hastened to reply. "No! No, I am all right. I was not captured, I cam here to find you," She quickly explained about Batman, and the Amazons beyond the capital. "I will get you out of here."

Hippolyta nodded, but her eyes still looked shocked, and a little dazed. "Yes…yes, then we will fight the Argives together! As it should be…" She tried to get to her feet, awkwardly, and Diana steadied her. "We will kill that bastard Herakles!"

Argives? Herakles? She stared at her mother, wondering if she had gone mad. Suddenly, the thought of Clark flashed through her mind.

"Mother! Where is Kal?"

Hippolyta stared at her, as if she didn't understand her. "What? What are you talking about?"

"He hasn't returned from the Getai!" Diana resisted the urge to shake her. "He was not with me during my labor!" Her voice started to tremble. "He wasn't there…"

For a moment, Hippolyta looked truly nonplussed, then noticed her stomach. Only then did she truly seem to see her daughter.

"Your child!" She gasped. "Diana…what…"

"You have a grandchild," She replied hoarsely. "I will say no more here until we are free from this place… and until you tell me where Kal is!"


Themyscira - The Wilderness

Some Amazon I am, Lois thought. I can't even find my way around Themyscira.

They still had to be somewhere near the coast. The smell of the sea reached their nostrils even through the smell of smoke. The sky was still red and overcast, although the sounds of fighting had gone completely. Despite that, Lois still couldn't find the path back to the capital, since the foliage seemed to get thicker no matter which direction they went. Lois also wasn't quite sure she wanted to get back to the capital, after all.

However, she knew she had to get Clark help. His chest wound was worse than she thought. The bleeding from the wound seemed to have slowed to a trickle under the bandages, but she must have nicked the lung, since he coughed and brought up blood. She thought he looked terrible, and he seemed to be delirious too, muttering about Diana and the baby. No doubt still thinking about his blog, Lois thought. Finally, she told him she had to rest, he was getting too heavy for her to support him.

"Just rest here for a minute, Smallville," Lois said, as she helped him sit back against a tree. "I'll try to get my bearings. We can't be far."

Clark grimaced at the pain, which hadn't gone away. It hurt to move. He was healing, but the magicked weapon Lois had stabbed him with must have been designed to hinder the healing process too. The fact that the sun's rays were hidden by the dark clouds didn't help, either. But while he wasn't at 100%, but he wasn't as bad as Lois thought he was, either. But through his physical pain was something else more worrisome.

Diana, my son...I need to find them.

Whatever had attacked Themyscira must still be out there, he thought. They had seen no other Amazon, no one else, there was nothing to give them any indication of what had happened.

Clark had seen Diana fight many times; he had every confidence in her fighting abilities. In many ways, she was a much more skilled warrior than he. Even so, that had not stopped the sick fear growing in his heart. He had to go now. If anything had happened to them...he dared not think of it.

"Where are you going?" Clark asked, exaggerating the weakness in his voice.

"Just stay there!" Lois snapped. "I'm going to take a quick look around here. We can't just go stumbling on, not knowing what we'll run into. You're really badly injured, Smallville, if you haven't noticed. But don't worry, I'll be back as quick as I can," She took the xiphos from her belt - not the magick one - and handed it to him. "Just in case. Try not to stab yourself with it."

Clark waited until Lois had gone out of sight, then tossed aside the sword. He felt a momentary qualm at leaving Lois to fend for herself; but then, he reasoned grimly, she'd certainly proven herself capable of defending herself. He'd be back for her as soon as he could.

Bracing himself against the biting pain in his chest, Clark took a deep breath, and rose into the air. He flew towards the Palace, his heart racing.

Diana, please wait for me...I'm coming...


Themyscira - The Dungeons

"Kal, Mother," Diana gripped Hippolyta's shoulders. "I want to know where he is!"

Hippolyta shook off her daughter's grasp. "You think of that man, even now, when the Argives have taken our city!"

"These are not Argives!" Diana shouted at Hippolyta, wondering if the wound to her head affected her mind. "Ilek-Vad has led an invasion force to Themyscira!"

Hippolyta blinked, as if only just now coming to the present. "Alar...yes, yes you are right, it is them! It is the fault of their king, whom I should have killed years ago!"

"He knows about the Amazon ways!" Diana accused. "You tried to kill him before, because he found out! About this damned ritual of ours! It has come back to curse us!" Diana thought of her baby, hardly a day old, and she was already separated from him. Dread shot through her. She had promised her Clark he would see his child. If anything happened to either of them, she would never forgive herself.

"Mother," growled Diana. "Where is Kal?"

"Kal?" Hippolyta stared at her, as if she had never heard the name before. "He is north...with the Getai."

"You promised you would bring him back," Diana stared intensely at her mother, feeling her self-control begin to slip. "Why is he not here?"

"Diana, this is not the-"

"Answer me!" Diana slammed a fist into the brick wall, smashing the masonry, inches from Hippolyta's head. She didn't move.

"You care more for a man even now," the Amazon Queen said reproachfully. "Even now when your sisters are in bondage! When have you ever thought of your duty before yourself?"

"Kal could have stopped this!" Diana retorted. "If he had been in the capital with me! If you hadn't sent him away! I swear, if anything has happened to him, if you did anything to him-" She clenched her fists.

"I did nothing! If he is not with the Getai, then perhaps he has fled, like a typical male coward who abandons his wife and child!"

Diana truly did not know what she would have done in the next second, had they not heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"The Guards!" Hippolyta exclaimed. "All this shouting has alerted them!"

Diana thought quickly. "Lie down, mother!"

"What?"

"Will you just do as I say for once!" Diana hissed.


Themyscira - The Wilderness

"Clark!"

Lois managed to get her bearings somewhat. She now knew which direction the Palace was. But now she could not find Clark. She wondered how he could have wandered off with his injury, but she worried he might have become more delirious. She had to find him, before anything else did. "Clark!" She shouted again. He had not even bothered to take her sword with him, typical. But he didn't respond to her calls and she couldn't see him anywhere.

"Where the hell could he be?"

"Who is it that you seek?"

Lois whirled around. She didn't see anyone, but the voice was sounded very close. It sure as hell didn't sound like Clark, although it sounded familiar.

"Who-where are you?"

"Lois."

Alarmed, she raised her xiphos, and spun around, her new Amazon senses coming to full alert. She thought she caught a glimpse of someone between the trees, someone dressed in yellow...there was silence for a moment.

"Who are you?" Lois shouted. "Show yourself!"

"I am here...or I will be...soon."

The voice was now behind her. She spun around, and gasped, nearly dropping her sword. She saw someone...something...in the trees. A tall man, in yellow robes, something glittering on his head, catching the light, but the rest of his face was hidden by the shadows.

Lois brandished the sword menacingly, but she felt terrified, although she didn't know why. The figure stood still, made no threatening move, but the sense of danger was acute.

This was not good.

"What do you want?" Despite her fear, her reporter's instinct told her to learn as much as she could. "Is this all your doing?"

"My doing? How can that be? What has Carcosa to do with this world?" The yellow-clad figure replied, in a flat voice. It sounded muffled, but dammit, it was familiar, Lois thought. She'd heard it somewhere before, she was certain, but couldn't place it.

"What?" Lois didn't even understand what he was saying. "What do you mean?

"The King in Yellow has other concerns," the robed man said. "As is only fitting. When the singularity is achieved then the Island's succession will be settled. The Queen will reign here again."

"Hippolyta?" Lois cautiously stepped forward, the sword in her hand shaking slightly. "Do you mean Queen Hippolyta?"

"Cassilda."

Yes, she knew the voice. The man's name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about.

"Who is Cassilda?"

"The rightful Dynasty shall be established once again. Then Alar will sink into the lake. With the King in Yellow, all things are possible."

With a shock, Lois suddenly thought, Trevor! She did an interview with him once, when he'd returned from Paradise Island. It was his voice, undoubtedly. But what was he doing here, again, and like this? Last she had heard he had left the Justice League. What had happened to him?

"Trevor?" Lois whispered. "Is that you?"

Then the figure turned to her, and she saw that underneath its pale, ragged yellowish cowl (or maybe it was the eerie light that was coming down through the clouds of smoke that made it look that way), the figure was wearing a mask over its face. Not like the ones the metahumans wore. It was utterly featureless, a pallid oblique over what should have been a handsome pilot's looks. It was faceless and it was terrifying.

"Do you doubt me?" The thing who spoke with Trevor's voice said. "Carcosa shall descend upon the Earth. With the King in Yellow, all things are possible."

Lois backed away numbly, her sword arm dropping, Trevor's emotionless voice echoing in her head. "The King...in Yellow."

She turned and fled.


Themyscira - The Dungeons

The pair of Guardsmen on duty had been alerted by the shouting in the cell below, and they went to investigate.

"What is it now?" One of them wondered.

"Perhaps they've set upon each other," his partner shrugged. "If they kill each other, all the better for us. Less trouble."

The Guards entered the block and approached the cell where the royal prisoners were kept. Immediately they saw the Queen lying facedown on the ground, the Princess kneeling next to her. She looked up frantically as they stepped closer.

"Help me!" She cried. "My mother! She is ill!"

"Oh ho," Diana saw the thickset Guardsman on her right smirk. "Such a shame. Or not. I suppose that means you will be Queen. I presume you will be much more malleable than that old hag there." The other Guardsman laughed.

"Will you send for the physician?" Diana pleaded. "Please! I...I will do anything."

The Guardsman leered. "Anything, you say? And what can a barbarous bitch like you do for me?"

"Oh...only...this!"

Diana launched herself at the barred gate, which snapped under her impact, and knocked the two startled Guardsmen on their back. Before they could regain their bearings, Diana picked up the heavyset one and flung him hard against the far wall, and the other went zooming down the length of the corridor. They collapsed and didn't move.

Hippolyta joined her daughter outside the cell. "Let us free our sisters!"

Diana nodded. There was no time to waste now. They would free the other Amazons and then rejoin the others outside the city. More than anything, Diana wanted to get back to her son. Then there was Clark...

She looked at her mother. "You and I are not done, yet."

Hippolyta was unmoved. "As you say, but first, by Hades, we will avenge our sisters!"

There were ten Guardsmen on the upper level of the palace dungeon. When Diana came flying through the corridor, they had only time to draw their scimitars or their clubs, before she was on them, slamming them against the walls. The imprisoned Amazons began screaming their battle-cry as Hippolyta snatched up a fallen blade and dispatched the rest. Diana ripped the bars off the cells. The Amazons streamed out, some assisting their wounded sisters.

"Queen Hippolyta, Princess," Penelope gasped, while the others cheered. "We thought you were dead!"

"A ruse, to deceive the Alarians," Hippolyta said. "Is this all of you?"

An Amazon named Xymia nodded. "The rest are dead, Majesty. Are we all that's left?"

Diana replied, "The rest of us are encamped outside the city. Now, let's get out of here."

"I will have the Alarian King's head on a pike," Hippolyta growled. The other Amazons nodded, and even the wounded were still willing to battle.

"Not now!" Diana ordered. "We must have strength in numbers. I will get us out of the Palace. Mother, are you well enough to take them outside?"

The Queen nodded, but frowned, puzzled. "Yes, but why?"

Diana stared upwards. "First, I must get my xiphos and lasso, and Kal's belt. With the lasso I will find out what the Alarian King is up to."

Moments later, the entire Palace shook as one of the outer courtyard walls blew out.

General Namash-Thah was with a party of Guardsmen close by, and they turned, startled. "What is that?" he blustered, staring at the billowing cloud of debris.

For a few seconds nothing happened, and they waited, puzzled. Then there was a high, whistling noise and the Alarians fell back, astonished, as their General went down, a flying javelin transfixed through his thick skull.

"For Themyscira! And Amazonia!" Hippolyta roared, charging out of the smoke on her black mare, Atalanta. The Alarians scrambled away as she thundered through their midst, followed by the freed Amazons also on horseback. They raced through, and over, the Alarians unlucky enough to be in the way, and headed into the depths of the forest, outside the capital.

High above the Palace, in the overlooked chambers where she once lived, Diana watched her mother and sisters escape, and the Alarians scattering like little black ants.

Good, she thought. There's that then.

Her rooms had been ransacked, but surprisingly, her armor, sword and lasso were untouched. She buckled them on, impatiently. She knew already she would have to fly to the land of the Getai and find Clark. It was possible her mother truly didn't know, and he was still there, perhaps wondering why no one had fetched him.

It would be so like him to wait patiently and not want to offend anyone, Diana tried to reassure herself. Sometimes he is too gentle. Even in bed. She always had to remind herself that he was not born to be a warrior, like herself.

Diana went to the open window. She leapt into the air, but then she felt something grab ahold of her boot and swing her backwards into the room, slamming her against the far wall, the tapestry tearing as she fell down it.

"Going somewhere?" Pickman asked.

Stunned, Diana looked up and saw a ghoul, nearly twice the size of the one which had attacked her in the hut. It looked more cunning, intelligent somehow, and looking into its eyes, that it knew who she was.

"No," Diana admitted. "I will stay to take your head!"

She drew her xiphos only partly free before the ghoul - it was so fast! - was on her. She felt it knocked out of her hand, then smelled the hot foul stink of its muzzle near her face. She instinctively headbutted it, and it fell backwards, cursing in some strange and ugly language. She kicked out sideways and felt it move backwards. Just enough, she thought. She tried to rise into the air but something sharp slammed into her side, and she flew backwards, landing on her back on top of the rubble of her furniture. Dizziness began to overwhelm her.

No, Diana thought. I will not fall here!

Diana saw the ghoul reaching out for her and she propelled herself up by her powerful calf muscles in her legs. She lunged at the ghoul, taking it by surprise, and both of them tumbled out of the window, and down.

A short time later...

Clark made a hard landing in the center of Themyscira, and rolled, awkwardly on the ground. Normally, he would be more graceful, but his wound still ached, and he was bleeding again. He picked himself up off the dust and stared, wild-eyed, around him. The city looked like bombed-out ruins from the Second World War. The Palace was still intact, but smoke was still rising all over the city. Rubble everywhere. He saw no one around.

"Diana!"

Desperately, he tried to scan the buildings, but they were still impenetrable to his gaze.

Frantically, he turned to run into the Palace. If she was still there, by some chance...

He nearly tripped over something on the ground, half-buried in the dirt. He picked it up, and froze.

Diana's tiara.

Slippery with blood.

Clark felt his limbs slowly go numb. He stared at the circlet in his hand, no longer feeling it, even though it was starting to shake.

No.

No.

It couldn't be. It couldn't.

Not his Diana!

He looked up at the sky, but there was nothing there. Not even the sun. Everything was darkness. Not since Smallville, when it seemed all was lost, had such despair overwhelmed his mind, driving all thought out, everything before the black wave of despair...he raised his head and screamed at the black sun hanging in the sky over Themsycira...

"DIANA!"


[AN: Oh Hippolyta's so annoying isn't she? Looks like Bruce's plan has a hiccup in it. Better come up with something else, Bats! Poor Clark! He's about to go apeshit, oh yes indeedy. Anyway, I hope this chap and cliffy will do you for awhile because midterms are coming up! Maybe I'll have something VERY short for next week...or maybe not! But we are coming to the dramatic showdown and conclusion SOON! As always your reviews are appreciated! I respond to every review! Unless it's a sucky review, then I just ignore you ;)

PS: What did you all think of the new WW trailer? It's tremendous! She doesn't have the face I imagine for WW, but it's still awesome!]