Chapter 17 - After the Battle
"Where is my daughter?" shouted Wonder Woman as she stood overlooking the round-up of the remaining Shakanar. She had begun to look around the battlefield for A-ko and had begun to get worried for her missing first-born daughter.
Zoey Valcuria took a deep breath and stepped forward. "I believe she is running a small errand, Your Highness."
"Zoey, how many times do I have to tell you my name is Diana? You're a grown woman now, and a full-fledged Amazon. That makes you my Amazon Sister. Please try to remember that," she explained.
"Yes - Diana."
"Now what is all this about an errand?" A-ko's mother asked, giving the young Amazon ambassador a withering stare.
Certainly, Zoey was a twenty-one-year-old woman, an Amazon of near perfect grace and form, and a master of all the Amazon fighting skills she had learned from her mother and inherited from the legendary Captain Marvel, the father she had never known. She had received the gift of super strength and speed. She was also a proven ambassador in good standing, skilled in the arts of diplomacy and military tactics. But under the regal stare of her best friend's mother, she reverted back into the ten-year-old girl they first met long ago in Graviton City.
In a few moments the Amazon ambassador to the Cygnan Empire explained the destruction of the JLA watchtower and the rescue mission A-ko was presently attempting.
"Of all the stupid, rash, and childish tricks she has pulled over the years! This has to top them all!" Wonder Woman exclaimed, losing her temper. This was soon replaced by worry for her "little girl".
She was already thinking about using her own ship to make a trip to the moon, or telling her husband to do so, when she saw a rapidly growing dot in the horizon and then heard a sonic boom.
The sight of her grown daughter soaring through the blue skies over the sacred soil of Themiscyra brought a surge of maternal and Amazon pride in the heir to the Amazon throne.
A-ko landed gracefully about twenty yards from her mother. The sight of her long and thick red hair blowing in the wind and her well-defined muscles caused her mother to smile. This, however, was quickly wiped from her face.
A-ko was beating a hasty retreat when she heard a very familiar voice, "Martha Kent! GET OVER HERE NOW!"
"I'm so busted," A-ko thought to herself, knowing full well what it meant when her mother used her proper name.
As she stood before her mother, Diana took her by the shoulders and carefully looked her over. "Are you all right?"
"Never been better, Mom!"
"Of course you are," Diana replied, looking over the deep cuts and the scratches that covered her child's body and were even now healing right before her eyes. "Well, what happened?" she asked.
"Happened?" asked A-ko. One soul-scorching stare from her mother and A-ko simply wilted!
"Scott was trapped under the wreckage and – "
"So it's Scott now - and how is the young devil doing?"
A-ko quickly broke down and told her mother the whole story of her lunar adventure.
"I'm relieved it all worked out for you - for both you and that young fool. But I hope you know how foolish you were and how much danger you put yourself and Scott into."
"But Ma!"
"Don't you Ma me; I know why you did it." Wonder Woman hugged her first-born close once more, and then turned to leave. She stopped, suddenly turned back, and told her, "Get some clothes on! You're all but naked!"
As her mother walked away, A-ko called out, "I thought Amazons are supposed to be proud of their bodies."
Without bothering to turn around, her mother announced, "Amazons, yes! My little girl, no!"
Zoey moved up to stand by her friend's side before saying, "Whew! That could have gone a lot worse."
"You ratted me out," A-ko replied, turning to face her friend, amber eyes blazing.
"Have you ever tried lying to your mother? She doesn't need that lasso to get to the truth."
A-ko calmed down, nodded her head yes, and replied, "Tell me about it. You try growing up in a house where your father can tell if you're lying by listening to your heartbeat, and your mother has a magic lasso that compels the truth to be told."
"By the way, has she ever used it on you?"
"Never had to. I always broke down long before it came to that. Mom only used the lasso to play with me, and when I got older she taught me to use it as a weapon."
"Well, Red, your mom is right about one thing - that bubble butt of yours does need covering!"
"You try drilling through solid rock and see how much in the way of clothing you have left," A-ko complained.
Zoey threw her arm around her friend's shoulder and announced, "Well, cousin, let's head over to my rooms. I'm sure after a quick bath I can find something for you to wear." As they started off to Zoey's rooms, they stopped more than once to watch the defeated Shakanar being marched off to captivity.
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With the Shakanar leader dead (her head now decorated an Amazon pike) and their hopes for ever having children dashed, their spirits were broken. With fingers interlocked behind their bowed heads, the tattered remains of the Shakanar invaders marched on, led by both Amazon and Crazy Division warriors, either back to the Revenge and captivity or to the Amazon prison for a fate far worse.
Spying the late admiral's new career as a trophy, Zoey asked, "How did that happen?"
"She had the misfortune to run into the Cygnan Queen's Revenger, an incredibly powerful warrior who puffed out her breath – "
"Breath?" said Zoey. "That doesn't sound so dangerous."
"Well, she puffed out her breath and Chitai's stupid head fell right into the stupid mud, followed by the rest of her stupid self."
Zoey gasped as she contemplated the power – divine or otherwise – that empowered Sempra Vigilantia to accomplish such an incredible act.
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Lois and Jonathan were happily seated on their father's lap when the Shakanar soldier who had attacked C-ko and Jon finally approached. She was once again tied up and embarrassed that she had been beaten by a mere child, let alone being in a great deal of pain from what was left of her hand.
"Rest stop," their Crazy Division guard ordered.
Seeing she was awake, Lois whispered into her father's ear. He nodded his head yes and she in turn slid off his lap and stood on her pudgy legs. She slowly made her way to where the huge Shakanar sat, all tied up. She was sweating and in obvious pain when Lois walked up to her.
The four year old youngster stood before her as the Shakanar growled, "What do you want?"
"I'm sorry."
"What did you say?" the huge Shakanar asked in disbelief.
"I said I'm sorry."
"For what?" the big Shakanar snarled.
"For hurting you," the tot replied.
"Why am I being tormented by a mere child?" wailed the alien warrior.
"She is trying to ask your forgiveness for crushing your hand," Biko tried to explain.
"If she needs me to forgive her so much, let me use my one good hand to wring her skinny neck!"
"Why are you so mean?" Lois asked as her lower lip began to quiver.
"You not only crushed my hand, but also prevented me from doing my duty!"
"You were going to hurt my brother," protested the young girl. Then she added, "And you broke poor Kir's arm."
"My only regret is that I didn't finish that green-haired abomination and your brother when I had the chance! Why do you care what happens to a couple of mere males, you little freak?"
"Boys are a pain, but Kir is my friend and even if my brother is a doo-doo head - he is my brother."
"Who are you calling doo-doo head? You're a droopy drawers, and at least I don't have girl cooties," protested Jon from the safety of his father's lap.
"He's not only insolent, but stupid too," snarled the Shakanar.
"My brother is kind of dumb," Lois agreed.
The Shakanar laughed as she told Lois, "The way he rushed to your aid when you screamed in fear proved just how stupid he is."
"Or how much he loves his baby sister," C-ko pointed out.
Turning to face C-ko the big Shakanar told her, "I know you! You're the long-lost bastard child of the False Queen. I almost got you, too. You and your whole accursed family will soon be ground into dust and forgotten at the dawn of a new Leptonian history."
Before C-ko could blast Kodene with a few Cygnan swears, little Lois – who didn't understand anything about galactic politics or history but was feeling guilty and wanted forgiveness – said, "I'm sorry I hurt you; please, can you forgive me?"
"What?" growled the Shakanar.
"I said I'm sorry for hurting you," the small girl replied.
"If you want me to forgive you so much, try dropping dead, you little freaking bitch!"
Lois burst into tears as she ran back to her daddy's arms.
"Call her that again and I will kick your teeth through the top of your head," warned Akana.
"And who might you be?" the Shakanar asked.
"I am the daughter of Ambassador Napolipolita."
"Don't you mean the drunken whore of a disease-filled Xram!"
"Lucky for you that you're tied up!" Akana growled back, her warrior's blood beginning to boil at the insult to her mother.
"Brave talk, little one, seeing I have only one good arm."
Akana snarled right back at her and said, "I am my mother's daughter, and fear no woman, be she Cygnan, Terran, or Shakanar. Nor any man for that matter. When your hand heals, you may call on me to settle this matter by the sword. That is, if you have the guts to confront a warrior face-to-face!"
"After we take this accursed island, I will take you up on your offer."
"That will be very hard to do, since the very few of your so-called Sisters who survived are at the moment being herded to the Amazon prisons," interrupted the Man of Steel. "From what I hear, what awaits them – and you too – is no joke."
"You lie!"
Biko laughed out loud and told the Shakanar warrior, "Don't you know Superman never lies?"
Lois was weeping, her face buried in her papa's broad shoulder. "Don't cry, baby," he whispered, doing his best to comfort his little girl. She raised her head from his shoulder and looked at him with her big blue eyes.
He smiled lovingly at her and wiped away the tears from her face with the corner of his cape before telling her, "The world is a big and wonderful place, Lois, full of good and honest people. But there is a lot of ugliness and evil in this world, also. I wish I could keep you from seeing all that ugliness, but even I can't do that. And even if I could, I don't think I have the right. Just remember that you tried to do the right thing, did your best to make amends, but were rejected. But that doesn't mean you give up trying, no matter how often you fail."
He dried the last of her tears and asked, "Do you understand, Punkin'?"
"I'm not sure, Daddy."
"Well - you just think about it. You will understand better when you get older!"
"I'll try, Daddy," she replied, throwing her arms around her papa.
C-ko, Biko and Akana smiled at the sight of father and daughter. The Shakanar trooper in the corner shook her head in disgust.
The moment was broken by the sound of marching feet coming down the long corridor. The Shakanar smiled in hope as Biko and Akana quickly took hold of their weapons once again, but were calmed down when A-ko's father told them, "Don't worry - those are the winners taking back the Palace."
"Did you ever look in the girls' locker room with those eyes when you were a teenager?" Biko teased.
Her sister joined right in by saying, "Remember, Superman doesn't lie!"
The Man of Steel laughed out loud. "I'll tell you what I heard all so often as a reporter."
"And what would that be?' asked C-ko, joining in the fun.
"No comment!"
All three young women broke out in laughter as a combined group of Amazon and Crazy Division troops halted in front of the family quarters. This combined group was led by Cassandra, still mourning her lost lover. She gave orders for her Amazon Sisters to release the four trapped Shakanar sitting on the floor.
Even then - and with their combined meta-human strength - it took all four of them to bend back the bronze blazer, which A-ko had done so easily, just far enough to release the prisoners.
The Kollya Stragaesh members of the combined Cygnan unit were far wiser about Shakanar. They kept their weapons carefully trained on them, ready to free them into the next world at the slightest hint of trouble. The Shakanar, knowing full well that the name Crazy Division was well earned, minded their manners and therefore tried none of their usual treachery.
"Is everyone all right here?" Cassandra asked, removing her helmet.
"Fine, except for my brother," Biko replied.
"What's wrong - has he been injured?" the Amazon captain asked.
"A broken arm, but he's sleeping now, thank God."
"You have one more pickup," Akana exclaimed, cutting the bonds of the big Shakanar and helping her to her feet.
"This isn't over," the Shakanar growled. "One day we and our daughters will feast on all of your hearts!"
"You are the toughest-talking blowhard in the thirty-three galaxies, you kakamatandula," Akana sneered, shoving the Shakanar towards the door. As she stopped by the door to unleash a barrage of the finest Cygnan expletives, she was met by little Lois, who held out her hand.
"No hard feelings, big lobster lady," she said, trying once again to make amends.
Her father smiled in pride at his little girl's attempt to win over the oversized psychopath.
The Shakanar's first thought was to slap the small girl down, but one angry stare from her father changed all that. 'Besides," she thought to herself. "The little half-breed bitch does have spunk!' She told the small child, "You would make a good Shakanar, if you ever managed to lose that soft spot inside of you!"
"Daddy and Mommy say it's the only spot that matters!"
Shaking her head in frustration, the big Shakanar announced, "Please - no more of these insipid emotions! Take me to prison - shoot me - just get me away from this child!"
"You see? Even she knows sisters are one big pain," Jon teased from the safety of his daddy's knee.
Lois' answer to her big brother's insult was to spin around and blow a raspberry at him!
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As the big Shakanar left, Cassandra took Biko by the arm and led her out of the hallway. They quietly talked to one another for a few minutes. Biko returned and announced, "Ma's been wounded!"
At once Biko was bombarded by a torrent of questions from her sisters about their mother, each one louder and more insistent than the last. Only when Mitsuko, Shiiko, and Akana began talking all at once did Biko hold up her hand and demanded silence.
"I got some bad news from Cassandra," she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Ma was wounded during a duel with a pair of Shakanar. They were trying to take her prisoner for Borna Chitai's successor. Well, those Shakanar hags don't need any prisoners now!"
Akana seethed. "Nobody cares about those Shakanar pigs! And there will be no successor to Chitai; I heard that Her Majesty plans to disband them forever and sending what Shakanar are left to the iridium mines at Gonidesh! And if you don't spill it about Ma right now, I will personally strangle you!"
"She is being treated by Doctor Stellamaris right here in the Palace. She will survive."
There was an audible sigh of relief from Napolipolita's gathered clan. They stood up and prepared to rush to her side.
"Where do you think you're going?" Biko asked.
"To see Ma! Where else would we be going?" Akana replied.
"The last thing Ma needs is a pack of her offspring rushing her all at once, especially when she should be resting."
"Biko's right, girls - let Stellamaris do her usual good work and after a little rest, you can take turns visiting your mother," A-ko's father interrupted.
Biko told her sisters, "I will go and check up on Ma, then come back and report."
"Why you?" asked Akana.
"I'm the oldest daughter here - it's my duty!"
It was just then that it hit her. "When did I begin to think about the drunken alien skank who stole my father's affection turn to thinking about her as the mother I never knew?' she thought. Soon, she had answered her own question. "Perhaps when I realized she gave me the love my father never could - or worst of all - never would give me!'
Not only had Biko stopped hating her stepmother, but she had also forgiven her father as well. It had been the big man playing contentedly with his own son and daughter on the couch who had told her about her own father's demons. He had told her that Daitokuji had blamed Biko for his first wife's dying in childbirth, giving Biko her life in return. A-ko's parents had helped change her hatred of her father to mere disappointment in him.
Mitsuko and Shiiko, of course, protested their big sister's idea and began to harangue Biko. Akana cut them short. "Quiet, you two! Biko is right. She will check up on Ma, then come back here and report back to us."
Turning to Biko, Akana asked, "By the way, what happened to that crazy bitch Chitai?"
"According to Cassandra, her head now decorates an Amazon lance!"
"Way to go, Ma!" Shiiko and Mitsuko gleefully cheered their mother's victory together.
"Quiet, you two," Biko scolded her baby sisters. "It really wasn't Ma. It was the Revenger who decapitated her. Now if I didn't know better I would think the pair of you were a couple of bloodthirsty Shakanar-wannabe cubs in training!"
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With great grief and weariness, the victors set about caring for their slain and trying to set to rights the destruction that had come unbidden to Themiscyra Island.
Cygnan transports were taking away the bodies of the slain Cygnans to the Homeworld for burial. Although the Amazons were immortal in the eyes of the Greek gods, they had never met modern weapons and as a result the dead of Themiscyra were being burned on ceremonial funeral pyres, accompanied by priestesses chanting and weeping for the slain. The pyres lit up the sky with an eerie glow.
Zazen'lda joined in the mourning at what was left of Paradise Island, gazing over at the spectacle of destruction before her. Hippolyta walked behind her and clasped her hands in hers.
The Cygnan queen was the first to speak. "Am I to assume that this is the great Queen of the Amazons – the Lady Hippolyta – who holds my hand in comfort?"
"I am she. And you must be Zazen'lda, first of the name, Monarch of Thirty-three Galaxies, who gave us your wondrous culture and your blessed labrys."
The two women clutched one another's hands tightly. Zazen'lda spoke. "Until we came to your planet, no one knew where your island was, and no one could attack it. We changed that, and I am so sorry."
"It must be nothing compared to your surveillance of all those star systems and all those ancient enemies.
"Ah, woe is me, and you as well because of us," sighed Zazen'lda. "These last few years, as you Terrans measure time, have been one disaster after another. I've desired none of them, not one. My desire is for a peaceful and quiet reign, nothing more. And yet – whatever good things I plant come up as a harvest of pain and sorrow. First, the Civil War and its effect on the Amazon Nation. And now, this sneak attack and the carnage it wreaked."
"You're not alone, Sister," Queen Hippolyta replied. "I've governed this isle for over three thousand years. I've seen my share of misery as well, in spite of my good wishes. If time doesn't heal wounds, it can dull the pain. Not completely, true, but enough to go on living."
Zazen'lda turned to face her, the colors of the sunset and funeral pyres turning her icy-white hair to orange. "You bear this so stoically," she said. "I envy you for that. When our scientists carried out their genetic experiments three hundred years ago, they only meant to make us bigger and stronger. Instead, we got a plummeting birth rate for baby boys and much greater swings in our own emotions. Our highs are like the peaks of mountain ranges, and our lows are like canyon bottoms. You humans – especially you, our Amazon Sisters – are more stable than we are. We cry too easily and anger too easily. And when we laugh, it's over the wrong thing and at the wrong times. I see that in myself."
Hippolyta nodded. "Child – better to cry too easily than not cry at all, like the demons we fought – or my people. The best we can do is make anguished faces – bitter words – breaking hearts – we are denied the gift and release of tears. Perhaps this is the one thing that the Gods forgot to give us when they pulled us out of the Well of Souls. I don't know."
"Stubborn pride is what started this," Zazen'lda whispered. "Pride in thinking mortal fools like ourselves could tinker with the fabric of life. And thinking we could do so with impunity. What did it bring us, besides a lack of males and a race of women unable to control their emotions? The Shakanar, that's what!" The Lepton Queen sobbed. "And for what? Blood and death and misery, which has now scarred you!"
Both women turned to look from the balcony at the sad scene before them. They were silent and majestic, in spite of their mutual troubles of heart and mind.
A knock on the door broke their musings. Philippus opened it. Grand Admiral Sempra Vigilantia entered with young Akana following her. Diana and A-ko were behind them, followed by the Napolipolita-Daitokuji children. The Princesses E-ko and C-ko entered next, hand in hand. Crown Prince Yienax, ruler of the Domain of Paranayah, was the last to enter before Philippus closed the doors. Captain Knossos, Master Sergeant Buyabah, and her aide Benedycina joined the Amazon guards in keeping the peace outside the royal assemblage.
The Grand Admiral handed her swords to Philippus for safekeeping. Zazen'lda waved her over. She placed her hands within those of Sempra Vigilantia, Revenger. "First of all," the Queen announced, "we are dispensing with all royal formalities tonight. We are exhausted and we are sick of all that tish-tosh. Revenger, how many Shakanar have been killed?"
"As your Majesty desires," replied the Grand Admiral. "Of the Shakanar enemy, less than one hundred have survived and are in custody. All the rest are dead."
Zazen'lda raised her chin and her eyes flashed. "How many left on the Revenge?"
"Around twenty-five thousand."
"Is the Revenge secured? Is it under our complete command and control?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"I want the twenty-five thousand on that ship, together with the Shakanar who remain on the Homeworld, transported to at least ten prison colony worlds for permanent habitation for sedition. They are to be separated from one another and their conversations monitored to prevent uprisings. The prisoners taken on the battlefield I will leave to our Lady Hippolyta for punishment." The women exchanged a grim smile.
Her gaze swept the room. "The Shakanar unit is officially disbanded. The War College at Mur Sejanus is closed, effective immediately. Their leaders are to be relieved of duty and retired from the Space Command. If they have anything negative to say about it, send them along to the prison colony at Gonidesh and let them grouse about it while laboring in the iridium mines."
"As Your Majesty wishes."
"Our casualties?"
"Of the Kollya Stragaesh, 350 are dead and another 2,000 are wounded. Of our Amazon Sisters, 400 are dead and 5,000 are injured. I am told that of the 400 fatalities, many of them are of the Bana Mighdall tribe."
"Oh sweet Hera," sighed Hippolyta, shaking her head. "All gone in so short a time! Hades himself must be shocked to his core with so many flung to the Underworld so quickly. Alas!"
Queen Zazen'lda then asked, "Damage to the Island itself?"
"Roughly a third of all buildings are damaged or ruined. About eight percent of all plant life is scorched. Unknown regarding animal life."
The Cygnan Queen nodded, and then turned to Hippolyta. "It is only fair that my people make restitution to yours and help rebuild your beautiful island."
"Gratefully accepted," Hippolyta replied, walking to an open alcove to observe the setting sun. It looked like a red-orange ball of dying fury sinking into the Atlantic. "Blame not yourself, Child. 'Twas your ancestors who scarred you, playing with the fabric of life itself as if with a toy."
She then turned to her audience. "Everyone is welcome to join me for dinner in what is left of the banquet hall. I don't feel like celebrating a victory, although our subjects – especially you, Grand Admiral – have given us one. I am tired and hungry and we all have to eat. So let's do so together. Dear Queen Zazen'lda, let us speak more about our plans for rehabilitation. Perhaps it will give us yet another opportunity to learn how closely related we Amazons are to our Sisters from the Stars!"