VII. Sacrifice
A gush of sunlight falls over Diana's face; she feels the warmth and sees the light shimmering through her closed eyelids. She stirs and opens them, but has to close them again immediatedly. After days in the dark dungeon, she's not able to stand the sunlit clarity overwhelming her through the large window in the solid stone wall.
Something soft and clean crackles beneath her. Sheets. She's lying in a bed, a real one. She moves and hears a tingling sound — her wrists are still cuffed and attached by a chain to the frame of the bed, that cursed magical chain that holds her since her capture, but apart from that she doesn't feel constraints. Diana opens her eyes again and scans the room. The window to the room is glass-stained and has no bars, so she notices with some surprise. The room is large, with a high ceiling, its ancient stone walls decorated with tapestries, paintings and wooden pane. With some effort, Diana manages to sit up in the bed, leaning against its headrest. She is still dizzy but feels that her body has recovered somehow — it must have been a long, deep sleep, her first one since she has slain the Wargod, now nearly a week ago.
The door opens and Dr. Maru enters. Diana's heart sinks in her breast like a stone.
"Do not fear; I have no evil intend — not anymore."
Her instinctive reaction must have been plainly visible. Diana squeezes herself into a Stoic demeanour. This woman is her arch-enemy, she should not be giving any of her inner feelings away.
Dr. Maru approaches the bed. She holds a tray in her hands which she places on Diana's lap. Food. Good food. Diana is famished — her former intention notwithstanding, she throws herself on the tray and wolves everything on it away in an amazingly short time. Isabel Maru watches the scene impassively. She removes the empty plate and announces matter-of-factly,
"The war is lost; it is over for Germany. Continuing these experiments on you makes no sense at all anymore."
Diana gazes at her with incredulity. She opens her mouth, but doesn't manage to produce a sound.
Isabel, after a slight hesitation, continues,
"Whatever you may think of me, serving the Empire to the best of my abilities was ever my only wish."
This was probably the closest she'd get to an apology.
"Let me take a look at these,"
The Doctor busies herself with some bandages on Diana's left shoulder. Diana, still chained to the bed, endures it reluctantly. For the first time in many days, she hears her own voice, a grating sound, not screaming, but speaking understandable words.
"How can you — just say that? You were ready to kill millions — how could you even think of doing those — those awful things? Not even what you did to me, but that poisoned gaz on the village, that plane you'd throw on London? These innocent people you murdered, the many more innocent people you would have murdered if we hadn't stopped you?!"
Isabel lowers her gaze. Something undefinite but apparently very interesting on the wooden flour seemed to hold her gaze.
"You yourself killed dozens, if not hundreds, in the trenches and at the military base, Princess. They had no way whatsoever to defend themselves against your superpowers — how is that any different?"
Isabel Maru was surprised by her own words. She was in the service of the Kaiser, and this was war. It was gruesome, yes, nobody expected it to be a walk in the parc. Why was she even arguing about it with this — brat?
Diana clenched her teeth. Her angular cheek stood out visibly.
"You are right, I killed many. And I did so in rage, because of the village, because of Steve. I now know that evil is on many sides, even in me —, " she paused for a moment, brooding. "But still, I did not kill because someone ordered me to. I at least wàs angry, I was — out of my mind! You don't even seem angry, you seem to — revel in your work, like an artist revels in his perfomance. Even now, after Ares's death, what drove you to continue totdo such hideous things?"
Instead of answering the unanswerable question, Isabel reverts to her scientist persona, and states abruptly,
"They ordered me to destroy you in the case of defeat. The armistice will be signed in two days. Colonel Gerbhardt does not trust me with this order, and I can't blame him for that, so I expect him back soon. You have to go."
Now it is amazement that runs over Diana's face. She looks at the Doctor intently.
"You are going to set me free? Even though I killed your general?"
A gloomy expression slides over the maimed face.
"Indeed, General Ludendorff was the ony man in my life I ever felt loyal to — and I'm not going to forgive you for killing him, believe me, even if I know you took him for someone else —," She twiched the bandage in its place and fastened it. "But you payed your own price in this respect, hmm? Or was that American pilot nothing more than just an incidental acquaintance?"
Diana's face turned deeply red; her eyes filled with tears. She lowered her gaze and said nothing. What was there to say?
Dr. Maru finished her work.
"There. Your healing abilities are truly amazing, Princess. You've slept, you're fed, and your wounds are treated; that's about all I can do for you now. From here on, you're going to be on your own. But I guess you'll be fine." She picked a large, curiously shaped key from her pocket and held it in front of Diana's eyes. The key to the magical chain that kept her manacled. "But first — "
Maru grabbed an object from her work bench and held it out to the flabbergasted Amazon princess.
"My Lasso! Good Hera, you found it! But why? Why are you helping me? Yesterday you almost killed me, and now — I realy don't understand?" Diana sounded really confused. After all she had been through she couldn't grasp the sudden change of heart in the once so sinister scientist.
Isabel looked straight at her. The Lasso glowed in her hand.
"To be honest, I don't know myself. All I know is: you spared me when Ares delivered me to you — I owe you a debt, and I'm repaying it. Also — " The doctor hesitated for a moment, "you're a magnificent young woman — it would be a shame to see such powerful beauty destroyed, basically for no other reason than that imbecil of a colonel who hates you simply because you exist."
She lowered her head again. She felt uneasy and warm; her hand clutching the Lasso covered with sweat, the strange object glowing in a soft, golden light.
"I can ony dream of what it must have meant to you to grow up so freely, to roam the countryside at your wish, to dwell in libraries and study whatever you wanted, to learn to fight and be strong, to feel — loved and hence to find value in yourself, in what you truly are — "
Diana observed her and listened attentively. She wasn't one for many words, but she felt the abysmal sadness in the voice of the woman before her.
"You should make it."
Dr. Maru lifted her head in surprise.
"Make it? Make what? What are you talking about?"
"The medicin you found in my blood — I heard you talk about it to that colonel. Make it. But just promise me one thing — "
"What?"
"Do not to make it for Germans alone. Do it for the good of the whole of mankind, for everybody. You see, the past is the past, you cannot change anything to the evil you brought upon others before. But it is never too late to start using that brilliant mind of yours for doing some good. There will be peace, and many people need to be taken care of. You could mean a great lot to many lives that would otherwise be destroyed or lost — even the gods might notice it. Just don't give up on yourself so easily!"
The young Amazon spoke with passion and persuasion. It was the longest speech Isabel had ever heard from her. The hardened, cynical scientist was taken aback; Diana's words shook her emotionally. Now it was she who didn't speak for a long while. Finally she nodded.
"You are right — science can be a force for good as much as it has been for evil. Even though I'll definitedly burn in Hell, I still might find some fulfillment in life before it gets to that point." She smiled with wry irony.
The Doctor threw the Lasso in Diana's lap. She handed Diana the key after unlocking the chain that kept the Amazon tied to the bed. Finally she placed a heavy satchel at its foot.
"You will have to behave as my prisoner until I release you at the gate. Please don't make it more difficult to me then it already is, allright? You'll be able to free yourself from your manacles once you're outside. There is some food in the bag. I could secure your other attributes; the shield is in there and your sword as well, although it is heavily damaged. My advise to you would be to return to your homeland as quickly as possible. The admiralty has ordered a fleet to Themyscira to destroy the island together with its inhabitants; they won't risk your people siding with our enemies. The fleet is on its way to your homeland as we speak."
"Yes — I heard your colonel say that." A fierce glint shone through her eyes. "They'll soon find out what they're up to."
Diana was already jumping out of the bed, but Dr. Maru pushed her gently back.
"Put on this trenchcoat – it will cover you up while I bring you to the gate. I know your strength, but you are not invulnerable. You don't want a whole army behind you in your weakened state. Can you drive?"
"Drive? You mean, those – machines? No, but I'm an excellent horsedriver."
She said it with genuine enthousiasm. Isabel couldn't help smiling. The young princess eyed her suspiciously.
"Now let's get you out of here before it is too late."
Determined footsteps and the cocking of a gun resound through the space of the large room.
"I'm afraid it is to late already. There has been a change of plan, ladies, — you are not going anywhere. Put up your hands!"
Colonel Gerbhardt cocked his pistol and pointed it at Dr. Maru's back. The doctor froze. She hadn't heard him coming in and was at first totally surprised, but quickly regained composure. Slowly she turned around while putting her hands in the air.
"I suspected already yesterday that you'd be up to something not good, but to set her free in plain violation of a direct order? There is only one word for such behaviour, Doctor: treason. And you'll pay the price for it, be sure of that. But first I shall do what you should have done yourself: to finish off that freak!"
He turned and directed his gun at the Amazon princess, halfway visible behind Isabel Maru's back.
The cracking of a heavy calibre shot. Diana blocked it easely, but the colonel came closer while firing more bullets. Diana dove out of the bed and to the ground, but, restrained by her chain, couldn't manoevre entirely out of danger's way. The large round in the Mauser wasn't empty yet. A new shot cracks — a shadow blocks Diana's eyesight and the bullet coming straightly her way. A muffled scream and Isabel Maru's body falls heavily at her feet to the floor.
Diana by now succeeded in opening the lock and breaking the magical chain. She feels at a sudden her powers returning. She throws the bed to the colonel who falls on his back, his pistol sliding out of his hand. Then she realises what happened.
"No! Dr. Maru! No, no!"
In one lean motion Diana jumps to kneel at the side of the fallen scientist. Blood gushes out of Isabel's mouth. She graps Diana's hand firmly.
"Why did you do that? I could have taken it! I am Themyscira's champion! Why in Hera's name did you do that?!"
"F — forgive me..."
A bloody hand touches Diana's cheek.
"So beautiful... I — I would so much have liked — to — make it — the medicin — "
Her eyes break, her hand falls to her chest, her head sinks to the side. Doctor Maru is dead.
"May the gods have mercy on thy soul. Oh Gods, she sacrificed herself so that I, so that the Amazons may live. I beg you, Athena, I beg you Hades, show mercy on her soul." Diana's hand softly covers Isabel's front and closes her eyes.
Only now her environment turned back into Diana's consciousness. The sound of soldier's boots is everywhere. She looks up and sees half a circle of a dozen steelfaced men surrounding her at three steps distance. They point their rifles at her. The colonel towers in the middle, a smirk on his face. He lifts his arm and aims his weapon. His mouth opens, his lips form the fatal command —
Bullets ricochet in all directions on the stone floor. The Amazon princess lands lightly behind the line and sweeps her Lasso through the surprised crowd; their closed line suddenly turns into a disadvantage. They try to whirl around and shoot at the same time; she protects herself with the shield in the satchel held before her chest. She kicks a nearby officer into the wall, seizing his sabre, hacking herself a way back into the line until she faces colonel Gerbhardt. They watch each other for a split second, they both know how this is going to end. He clenches his teeth while the cold steel penetrates his chest, it feels like it takes an eternity before the weapon appears between his shoulderblades. Diana pushes him with her foot off her sword, he is dead before he even touches the ground.
Everything happens as if in slow motion. Diana sees, feels, senses what is going on before it happens, what to do before she does so. Battlerage consumes her, but she is entirely lucid in her actions. She turns about her axis, slashes, crashes, blocks, tosses around. The surviving soldiers panic and try to rush out of the large room through its only door. The princess sees the mayhem and rushes to the large window. In the quickly falling dusk she discerns the horses of a cavalry detachment that returned just minutes ago from a reconnaisance mission. Without hesitating she crushes through the window, its coloured shards burst out in all directions.
She lands heavily on the grit and goes through her knees. Pain washes over her; she feels she can hardly control herself. Warm blood trickles on her right leg. Grabbing her waist blood leaks through her fingers. Diana realises that she is hurt, badly. Speed is of the essence. She hurls herself into the saddle of the horse closest to her, whispering some soft words in the startled stallion's ear.
Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hyppolita, Princess of the Amazons thunders over the bridge and disappears into the night, the sound of the horse's hooves resounding on its wooden beams hangs in the air filled with gunshots, cries and utter chaos, her red blood invisibly colouring the scene that fades behind her.