Title: Exodus
Author: M.
Author's Contact Info: PG-13
Genre: alternate universe, challenge response
Pairings (if any): nothing canon
Characters: OCs
Summary: it is the end of the frakking worlds...
Disclaimer: Own Delia, Leda, and company. The setting? Not so much.
Author's Note: For the Common People Challenge. Thank you Varyar for the beta and help! This is the 2nd in what may be a 5 part series. (5 amazons, 5 stories) In keeping with the Lena Olin as Delia theme...Mia Maestro is who I envision for Leda.

"Exodus"
by M.
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They are running out of time.

The seconds are ticking away in the back of her mind, seeming to drain faster with each second that goes by, and she catches herself wiggling her foot as nervous energy pushes free. It's an old habit, one she hasn't caught herself in since her early teens and she reflexively tucks her leg beneath her to still it. She cannot afford even the least of distractions as she pilots the ship over the city. They are running out of time, the Cylons will not delay much longer. She knows intimately that it is only a matter of time before they realize the Amazonian defensive systems are isolated from the Colonials systems and turn on them.

She can only pray to the goddess they are gone and their remaining sisters safe beneath the city before that happens.

Wind buffets the small transport and she has to fight to keep it aloft. It is a moment spent struggling with sluggish controls before she realizes that it was not wind. Rather, it was the concussive force of an explosion and a message from the goddess herself. The Cylons are getting closer.

Behind her, she hears a shout of, "Highness!" and she turns her attention from the controls to see Maren in the cockpit door. The older woman points and she turns to look in that direction and sees what the warrior has already seen. Struggling through a field toward Themiscyra's fortified walls is a man. A local farmer they've had dealings with.

She isn't surprised to see him. Few people are willing to make their home near Amazon cities, choosing to believe the lies of their parents and their government. The ones who did were often forced into it. The land near the cities is hard and crop yields small, it sells cheaply and oftentimes it is all some farmers can afford. They settle near the cities because they have no choice and are always surprised by the hospitality of their Amazon neighbors. The man running toward the city is no exception. Demen's crops have been served many times at her mother's table and, before the death of his wife the winter before, his family had dined with them.

Even at their altitude, she can see he is carrying his daughter in his arms and his young son is keeping pace at his side, if only just. She knows without question he is not seeking escape for himself. She also knows they don't have time to stop. The transport is full, destination is an Amazon ship in orbit, to the point she is barely able to keep it in the air. They can't stop but she makes the decision to anyway and no one protests the landing. She shouldn't be surprised by that but, despite her pride in her people, she still is.

When the transport touches down, Demen alters course and turns toward them. The look of visible relief at the sight of her face brings a faint smile to her lips. She has had many dealings with him at her mother's behest. The Queen of the Amazons does not concern herself with the everyday affairs of farmers but does not dismiss them either. Out here, isolated on the peninsula and forgotten by the Colonials, so many things can happen. Often times, the Amazons help is all Demen and his fellow farmers can depend on and she is who they approach when they require that help. It is why she knows many others like Demen are fleeing toward them. No one else will come for them, there is no help save what the Amazons can provide.

Her mother would not refuse this request and neither will she but she dreads the moment that lies ahead. In his eyes, she can see he dreads it as well. Even when the world is falling down around your ears, it is difficult to believe it truly will. Difficult to believe that everything will just...end. In that, death is difficult to comprehend as well. Crossing the veil...unimaginable.

Without word, he passes his daughter over, pushing her into her arms and for the life of her, she cannot recall the child's name. It brings a rush of irrational frustration. She knows this family. She was there the day the girl was born, she knows the child's favorite flower, and that she told her mother she wanted to be Amazon like the women of the city but nevertheless, it eludes her. She's known them for years, for frak's sake, she should know.

Pushing the irrational thought aside, she shares a look with Demen and an understanding passes between them. She hefts the child on her hip and nods. She doesn't say it but he hears it nonetheless. The silent promise that she will take care of them. If nothing else survives of Demen's life, his children will. He has the word of an Amazon to ensure it. It is testament to his faith in that oath that relief settles on his shoulders like a mantle. He kneels then to kiss his son's forehead. The children don't yet understand the import of the moment as they are quiet. They don't realize this is the last time they will see their father in this life.

She remains silent, despite the growing urgency of the moment, determined to give the children the moments she is being denied. Somewhere in Themiscyra her father is dying and her world is dying with him. She will wait these few seconds and gods damn the consequences.

"Listen to the princess," Demon whispers hoarsely to his son. She cannot hear the words over the engines but she sees his lips form the words just the same. "Mind your sister."

Then he is gone, striding through the grass toward the city. He won't look back.

Not even when the little girl in her arms begins to wail and struggle.

There is no time to spare for comfort. Instead, she ignores the scratching and biting of the girl in her arms and retreats into the ship with the boy beside her. The others close the door and she pushes the girl into Maren's arms. The swiftness of the motion seems to stun the child into silence and she knows it is because the girl has never before seen her react in such a manner. The Amazons little Neela has been exposed to have never before been so abrupt, silent, and never before has her beloved princess ignored her. Leda knows by the girl's soft sniffle that now the reality that something is very, very wrong is beginning to sink in.

On the surface she is calm, collected and in charge. Inside where no one can see she is torn. Agonized. The child's terror echoes her own and she thinks that by comforting the girl's she may ease her own. It's a fallacy but a tempting one nonetheless. She doesn't want to be the one the others look to for guidance. She does not want to be the leader here but she is and that can not change. She is the eldest daughter of their Queen, some day she will be their Queen, and she must respond accordingly.

Rather than give in to her fears and run to hold the child again, she puts one foot in front of the other and keeps on until she is again standing at the pilot's station. There, she forces herself to sink down into the chair and place her hands on the controls.

For one eternal moment she lowers her head, drawing in a steadying breath, and mourns the loss. She knows in her soul she will never see this world again and she wishes, with all that she is, that she might have just one moment more. One moment to tell her father goodbye.

But the gods are not so merciful and the Cylons' bombs grow closer still. Whatever time that they did have to them is lost now and she ignores all her pilot's training as she opens up the engines and races skyward. The easy part lies behind them now and she must focus. There is a gauntlet to run to run before they can reach the safety of Galactica's guns. The ships under Amazon control are indeed armed but she knows instinctively without the help of larger vessels, like the famed Battlestar, they will not last more than a breath in such a fight.

A wry smile tugs at her lips, betraying the grim set of her features, as she works the controls. How much such knowledge must burn in her mother's belly she can only imagine…depending on the Colonials for protection is the worst nightmare of any Amazon queen…

If there is but a way around it her mother will find it. Delia, Queen of the Amazons, is nothing if not a resourceful woman and skilled politician. If the Colonies had run rife with prejudice against the Nation she does not wish to think how it will be now. The cloak of civilization the Colonials have long hid themselves in had been ripped away and what lay beneath no one truly wishes to see.

It will be interesting to witness, unpleasant without a doubt, but still...interesting nevertheless.

That, as flimsy as it is, is what she tells herself as the atmosphere falls away and the blackness of space looms. Defensive maneuvers are automatic as she sends the transport hurtling toward the waiting ships and away from the planet, the Cylons, and her father.

Pain lances through her soul at the thought and she whispers a prayer to the Gods for their mercy...

They all need it.

fin