Chapter 2

Diana's day started out wonderfully. She woke up to the sun's rays shining through her window at 8:05. She bypassed putting on her armor, as she had for the past twenty years, and settled for a beautiful shortsleeve yellow sundress stopping just below her knees, matching it with a light sweater and some low, strappy heels. She completed the rest of her daily ritual by 8:45 and left her temporary apartment a little early so she could stop at nearby cafe for her daily dose of caffeine. She made the three minute walk without a hitch and arrived to find only one person in line ahead of her. With a beaming smile, she happily waited to order her coffee, with a little cream and a lot of sugar, and a blueberry muffin.

At 9:00, she hailed a cab to take her to downtown Brooklyn, where she intended to do some window shopping before heading to the antique store at 10:00 am. She wandered around, taking in all the sights and sounds of a part of New York she hadn't been to before, and while it wasn't Themyscira, it was beautiful in its own way.

Before she knew it, an hour had gone by and she made her way towards Brooklyn Antiques to see the result of Abe's experiment. Her vibrant mood was shattered as soon as she entered the establishment.

Time seemed to slow as Diana absorbed the new situation. Another shot rang off and the unarmed Amazon immediately took cover behind one of the many shelves. Several more shots were fired and causing shards of broken glass and ceramic to pepper her unprotected form before the assailant rushed out of the building. A sense of dread settled on Diana in the following silence. Peaking around the shelf she took in the prone body of an old woman and a flash of regret went through her heart.

If only I had been here sooner... If only I had my armor... If only... If only... If only…

She knew it wasn't a healthy way to think. She knew she shouldn't blame herself for every death surrounding her, but it was so easy when she knew she had the power to stop it.

Her brooding was interrupted by hard footfalls coming from behind the counter. Diana returned to her position behind the shelf, not wanting to be shot at again without her bracers. Not moments later, Agent Carter burst from the secret entrance solely focused on chasing down the assassin.

"Peggy!" Diana called, stepping out from her position behind an assortment of now mostly shattered kitchenware. Peggy jerked her head to the side in surprise and faltered in her step when she realized who had called her name.

"Diana?" she questioned. "What-"

"Where is Abe?" she cut off her friend off, praying to every god that he was alright.

Sadness flashed across Agent Carter's face as she turned to finish her chase. "Go down the hall and make a left at the end."

Now Diana knew something was very wrong. Without missing a beat, she took off down the hall at a nearly inhuman blur, passing a very handsome and muscular man who she later found out was actually Steve Rogers.

The room Diana was met with was complete chaos. There were small fires burning throughout the viewing area with shattered glass littered among toppled chairs and several bodies that looked to have been secretaries or politicians. The door leading to the lab was barely hanging on its hinges and the lab was in similar disarray, but Diana only had her eyes fixed on the lifeless body lying in the middle of a crowd of people under a blood-stained white sheet.

The goddess shakily made her way down the bent staircase and pushed her way through the crowd of people, knocking several over in her single minded determination to reach her goal. She collapsed on her knees by the body's head, hoping and praying it wasn't her friend. She slowly pulled back the cloth and let out a choked sob. It was Abe. She gently ran her fingers through her friend's messy hair. A single tear trailed down her cheek as she apologizing in every language she knew. She was vaguely aware of the crowd standing around her being dispersed, but she couldn't find it in herself to care.

She was drawn back to reality be a hand resting on her shoulder. She looked up to find Howard Stark with an incredibly somber look on his normally egotistical face. She couldn't help but to spare a moment of thought as to how out of place it was. He lightly raised a hand to wipe a tear from her cheek. She hadn't even realized she had been crying.

"I could've saved him," she whispered as Abe's body was placed on a stretcher and carted away.

"There was nothing you could've done," he said gently, helping the goddess to her feet and pulling her into an embrace.

"You don't understand," she said looking into Howard Stark's confused eyes. "If I was here, I could've saved him." And for some reason, he believed her.

"I'm glad it was you."

Steve, who had just finished speaking with the senator, jumped and turned to see Diana Prince.

"Oh! I, uh… thanks," he managed, reaching up to rub the back of his head. "I didn't know you were here- I mean of course you're here, but you weren't at the experiment, so I thought-"

Diana cut him off with a weak laugh. "Don't hurt yourself," she said playfully. "I heard what you did..." she trailed off with a shake of her head. "You should be coming with us to Germany. It is an insult to Dr. Erskine's memory to keep you here."

"You're going too? What are even here for? I don't mean to be rude, but I haven't seen you really do anything," Steve finished sheepishly.

Diana smirked. "You know of Hydra and their leader, yes?"

Steve nodded in the affirmative.

"You know then that he believes that there are relics left on the Earth from the gods. I am an expert on those relics."

Steve raised an eyebrow. "And you believe they exist?"

Diana smiled conspiratorially. "Between you and me, I've seen many."

Steve looked like he wanted to argue, but Diana didn't give him the chance.

"You remind me so much of a man I used to know." She smiled sadly before turning around to leave. "Abe meant for you to be a soldier. Don't forget that."

Steve waved awkwardly and decided that he would probably never understand women.

A/N:

I'm alive! School has been crazy this semester and I finally have a break for Thanksgiving. I was able to plot out the rest of the story and how I want everything to work out, and I have to admit, I'm super excited to write the next few chapters. I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, but it needed to be done so we can get to the good bits! Also, I'm going to try to finish this story before the end of the year. Thank you to everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited this story! I love reading what you all think!