Diana turned towards the humble Sir Patrick, who had suddenly appeared behind her. She thrust the Godkiller forward, piercing his chest with two feet of steel! Sir Patrick- no, Ares- slumped forward slightly onto the blade and went limp. No blood gushed forth from the wound. Diana released the hilt of the blade, startled, and took a step back. Sir Patrick fell to his knees, the sword still protruding from his back. Was the god of war truly dead? Had she fulfilled her purpose? Diana leaned down and looked into the very human face of Ares, God of War. His eyes were closed. Sir Patrick seemed peaceful, despite the sword sticking from his chest. Diana dared to take a breath, then another. The room was silent. No sound echoed in from the German base outside.

Then Ares laughed. A soft chuckle began to emanate from Sir Patrick, slowly growing until his chest shook with the sound. Diana stared in disbelief. Ares opened his eyes, but now Diana could see they were a furious red with black pupils. "You're not the first being to try to destroy me," Sir Patrick said. "But this is hardly the tool for the job."

Diana muttered, "But…the Godkiller…"

Ares smiled. "Yes, the Godkiller- a weapon of war. My weapon. The sword I used to kill Zeus and the other gods- well, destroy their bodies, anyway. It can kill pretty much any god- except for me. For I am war." Ares rose to his feet and pulled the Godkiller from his chest. As he rose, sounds of shouts erupted from the nearby base. Steve Trevor and his friends had been discovered during their infiltration of the base. The soldiers took up defensive positions around the planes, battling German soldiers while Steve tried to disable the deadly weapons inside. Ares held up his sword, examining the clean blade for a moment, then tossed it to Diana. Diana caught the blade out of reflex, then looked at Sir Patrick suspiciously. "You may have this back, Diana. You are, after all, a soldier." Sir Patrick emphasized the last word, then glanced towards the base. Diana looked outside and saw the flashes of gunfire, heard the echoes from their shots. She growled at Ares, "Make them stop. You caused this."

Ares shook his head. "That's what the gods said, too. 'Make them stop,' he said. 'This wasn't what they were meant for.' But I couldn't. It was what was in their hearts," Ares said, almost as a lament. Diana shouted a denial and leapt at Aries, swinging towards him with the blade. Metal plate armor appeared around his forearms and blocked the Godkiller easily. Diana lashed out with a foot and kicked Ares in the stomach, slamming him through the walls of the watchtower. Ares groaned with pain, then righted himself in midair. "Humans have grown more intelligent, more reasoned…and more deadly! I had only to leave a few hints along the way, and they figured it out all on their own." Ares spread his arms, and an aura of power, crimson red like blood, erupted around him. The placid form of Sir Patrick was coated in liquid steel, which formed itself into ominous plate armor. The German base explodes in a giant blast of fire! The sound of bullets firing and the cries of pain in the distance seemed to grow louder. "And as humans grew, so did my power!" Ares declared.

Diana stepped forward into the gap in the wall she had made. "Then I will stop you," she stated firmly. Hefting the Godkiller blade, she leaps into the air after Ares.

Diana and Ares exchanged blows, using all the powers at their disposal to fight each other. As they did, the battle at the German base escalated. Neither side seemed to notice the battle between Ares and Diana as they waged one of their own. Steve Trevor could not disarm the bombs headed towards London. He moved forward into the cockpit and began to start the engine of the plane. Ares's voice echoed in Diana's ears, and in the subconscious of the fighting humans. "You are not the first, Amazon, to bring peace with the sword! Zeus killed his own father and brought an era of peace for the gods! Humans have spent millennia killing each other to forge great empires! Each fights in the name of glory and peace and love of their countrymen! But they wage war, all the same!" Diana lays into Ares with mighty blows and great powers, but none of them seems to do any real damage to Ares. Ares barely fights back, seeming more interested in his words. Diana continues to furiously assault him, but to no end. Steve Trevor launches the plane into the sky. He points his gun at the cases of bombs in the back of the plane and takes a deep breath. Then another.

Diana takes the next breath with him. She feels him, somehow, in the back of her mind. She senses what he is about to do. Diana's heart fills with desperation and despair. No, Steve, she begs him silently in her heart. Diana feels his resolve and knows he is afraid. Diana feels the fear recede as it is replaced with the images of people he knows; his family, his friends, his comrades. The last image in his mind is her. Diana feels a burst of love and compassion as Steve pulls the trigger.

A plume of fire explodes in the air above the battle. Flaming shards of wreckage begin falling among Diana and Ares. Diana's heart breaks as she feels the emptiness in her heart where Steve used to be. Diana fills with loneliness and bitterness and regret. She surveys the still raging battle, shocked that somehow it hasn't ended, that the world didn't stop with the death of Steve Trevor. Diana sees the few remaining men who went with him cowering behind boxes. The men embrace each other, sharing their grief, and beginning to accept in their hearts that they won't escape this place alive. Ares notices the subject of her attention. "There's only one way to stop this, Diana," his voice mutters in her mind. "One way to stop them, to make sure they don't hurt your friends, to stop them from killing thousands with their deadly gas." Ares pauses, briefly, letting Diana process. "Kill them…before they kill you, and everyone you care about."

In that moment, Ares floods Diana's mind with images of what might be- the men dying, flames engulfing everything, explosions decimating cities, gas creeping slowly through neighborhoods killing men, women, and children. Diana can barely breathe as she tries to process the images. The Germans slowly approach the kneeling men, Steve Trevor's allies. Diana desperately clings to one thought to sustain herself- Steve. She remembers the light in his eyes. She remembers his compassion, his camaraderie. She remembers his insistence that he wanted the killing to stop. Diana pushes against Ares's thoughts with one of her own- this is not what Steve would want. She moves. Diana appears in front of the crouching men, beginning to block German fire with her shield. She kneels, guarding the men and her own body from the concentrated gunfire, as she cries, "Run!" The three men scramble away into the night. Ares flies over and waves his hand towards the Germans. They turn away, as if forgetting Diana is there, and start putting out the fires.

"That accomplished nothing. You have merely left these men alive to kill each other another day. You're strong enough to stop this. Kill those men! They're not innocent. They intend to massacre thousands!" Ares declares.

Diana slowly stands up to face Ares. "I could. I'm powerful enough. I could kill them all. But I CHOOSE not to. I choose to seek a better way." Diana looks down at her waist. She holds up the Godkiller, then stabs it into the ground before her. The ground shakes slightly at the impact. The weapon sinks into the earth up to the hilt. Diana looks at her arms, at her gauntlets and shield. "My people trained me to fight. They gave me tools and armor but forbade me from using the Godkiller. Why? Why a shield? To defend others." Diana spins her lasso in front of her. "Why a lasso?" She whips it forward, wrapping it around Ares. "To restrain instead of kill. To guide instead of control. Why a Lasso of Truth? To teach humanity that their hatred comes from fear, not from evil."

Ares smiles condescendingly. "The truth cannot stop me, or them."

Diana looks Ares in the eye. "Then I will use other tools. I will use empathy, compassion, consideration, and love. For I believe in love. When they no longer see their neighbor as an 'other' and learn to love each other for their differences, they will have no need for war. I will heal their wounds, body and soul. I will protect them! They will feel safe, and so there will be no need to war among themselves. Then you will have no power, and you will wither away." The lasso begins to glow brighter. Ares begins to grimace and wince. "You would change human nature? Preposterous," he declares.

Diana says, "Maybe. But I will try anyway. I will be a check upon you. I will give my life for this. I will be a teacher, a protector, and a counselor. I will not return home to Themyscira until I have shown humanity there is a better way. I will stand WITH them, until the task is done." Ares has now faded to a shadow of himself. As he begins to disappear, he says, "Then I look forward to our contest, Diana. We will struggle for the soul of humanity. But know this- as long as war exists, I will never die." Ares vanishes, and the lasso falls onto the ground.