Three.
I.
She wished that they had more time.
It was only two weeks, half of it spent on an unnaturally fast boat, but it was just two weeks from the time she saw him crashing into the shores on a sinking plane to the time she saw the plane he was flying away blast into bits.
She wished that it was her instead – she was the one who wanted to fight, and Ares was her responsibility. Not his. Steve Trevor was a good man who did not deserve to go. She wished desperately that there was another way.
But Diana Prince is no regular woman. She isn't giving up – there ought to be something that she can do. After all, in the realm of gods and monsters, the idea of an afterlife (and dare she think, the possibility of resurrection) is not entirely a foreign one.
The research she had to do quickly proved to be very difficult. It was shocking just how little that she knew about Steve, and just how little she knew about her own origin.
To find out more about her lover, Diana worked hard to get a few details from Etta, who was apologetic but remembered how Steve asked her, again and again, to not breathe a word about his family to anyone, should the information falls into wrong hands.
Steve's friends knew barely anything about his background, too – ridiculous stories on their expeditions aside – and it took a lot of coercion to find out where Steve was from, who his parents are, and how he came to be. That's what he gets for being a spy.
When Diana finally made it to West Lafayette, Indiana, she took in the city and imagined Steve growing up, with his father as an engineering professor and his mother a lovely woman with the same, kind eyes. Her parents are mourning, but they know their son's effort was not in vain.
Dr. Matthew Trevor would show her around the campus, where they met a man named Ross. Later, Diana realized, Ross built the first university-affiliated airport on Earth to train pilots and inspire students such as Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. (And much, much later, James T. Kirk of Riverside, Iowa, but we are not there just yet.)
As for Mrs. Amelia Trevor – she showed her the few pictures they had of him, thanked her for her words, taught Diana how to make his favorite dish, and showed Diana an excerpt of the last letter Steve sent them –
…
I have met this beautiful woman, a goddess named Diana, and I wish you both to see her. She is different than any other that I have met; there is little I can tell you about my life, but meeting her has been the most spectacular news I have had since the start of the war efforts. I wish I have more time to tell you about her, but I must keep this letter brief.
Alas, I have realized my mortality since the start of the war, and I am not optimistic that—
…
Diana wanted to see more, but Mrs. Trevor had already taken the letter away. It was for the better; Diana knew that she won't be able to read about how Steve discusses his own mortality, how fragile a human life is, and perhaps, his readiness to sacrifice himself for her (for everyone else) in the end.
Shortly after leaving West Lafayette, Diana realized that she also knew nothing about the gods or of death. While Antiope's death was the first that she had experienced, many followed quickly.
What she did not understand was that she could not get back to Themyscira. Diana sailed home back to the Aegean Sea, circling around the fog that cloaks her home of thousands of years. However, through all her pounding and shouting and screaming and fighting, she was unable to cross the barrier. Some how, during the time of war, the barrier grew weak enough for Steve et al. to penetrate the fabric of space and tumble through, but now that the Great War is over, the barrier remains impenetrable once again.
Hurt and reeling from shock, Diana sailed back to London, then to America to look for more answers. She doesn't know how, but she will.
The answer came in the form of a band of silver parka wearing teenage girls that she encountered in the woods one day whilst she was hunting in the northern New Hampshire woods.
September 1928 had just crept by, and Diana had been practicing her shooting. It really was just another day. She dabbled in being a friendly vigilante of the woods, hunts her own food, and occasionally slay a monster or two. Of course, monsters are real – they just prefer to not be seen until they are hungry, then they hunt for innocent humans, particularly human children.
It just happened that today, the monster had been practically stubborn: not dying aside, it had also given her a nasty scratch and she was getting more and more frustrated by the second. Just when she was going to go into god-mode, though, these girls came in, silver bows arched and aimed at the monster, releasing volleys after volleys of arrows to kill the beast.
One of them whistled, and a group of silver wolves came in from around to their aid.
Honestly, Diana had no idea what the fuck was happening.
After the ordeal, it turned out that they are the Hunters of Artemis. A band of immortal girls, held by the power of a vow to pledge their allegiance to Artemis, the last god in existence. They had been created by Zeus eons earlier, all in a plan to provide Diana protection should she need it.
Artemis. Diana tastes the name in her mouth, realizing that this was the name her Father intended to give her. She accepts their help, and the group traveled together, exploring the world. Through these girls, Diana understood a few things –
She was right. Mythological barriers are only weakened in times of war and unease. There is an underworld and it's been a hot mess – all the gods have been erased from existence so Hades won't be there to give her a hard time, but that doesn't mean that monsters and other horrors won't stop her still. Steve Trevor would be in the horrid place, and there is a chance that she could resurrect him. (Of course, only if he wants to be resurrected.)
Diana didn't need anything else. Off to Hades, it was.
So, the next thing a world war broke out, Diana did not rush to the humans' aid as fast as she could, or as fast as she once thought she should. Of course, she wanted to help to minimize the casualties, but it was an inevitable war.
Humans, the fickle things they are, brought this one upon themselves. Diana needed a reminder in having faith in humanity, and a refresher in Hades (hopefully in the form of Steve Trevor) might be it.
She didn't even think to return to Themyscira first.
So off she goes with a few of her Hunters, venturing into the depth of hell once the war weakened the magical barrier just enough.
There were monsters and lost souls – so many wandering souls of the newly dead soldiers standing and circling endlessly around – but Diana and her hunters ignored them for the most part and managed to get to Elysium. Where else could Steve be?
Unlike the rest of hell, Elysium is a pretty island with pretty flowers and the perfect weather. It was encased in a dome that flickered in and out (presumably because of the war) and upon entering, the bunch recognized countless faces – both the forgotten and ones made immortal by history – of the purest, kindest and best people of the Earth.
Diana knew that Steve should be amongst them.
.
.
But she couldn't find him.
There are only so many souls in Elysium, but she couldn't find Steve, and she sure as hell didn't know who would have the answers for her.
It wasn't until a little later when an extremely disappointed Diana decided to retrieve with her hunters, when she found Chief at a corner of the garden, stroking one of the hunters' wolves. He did not hear her at first but turned and engulfed her in a hug of shock and pride when he found her.
"Diana," he greeted. Diana greeted Chief back, surprised by how Chief's voice sounded. It was as if he was speaking to her underwater. The words sticking and weaved together, reaching her with effort. The living communicates with the dead, but with much hardship.
The two talked briefly, but Chief knew what Diana wanted. He knew that she wanted information on Steve, and he was happy to give that to her. But the information was not what Diana wanted – for all that Steve was, he was her lover. And she was his.
He had gone for a chance at resurrection, foregoing an eternity of peace at Elysium once the barrier weakened enough, just to have the chance to see Diana once again.
She had missed him by just a hair.
.
.
A/N: Should I continue with this? WW84 is coming out soon...