The Difficult Truth

Diana had lost. She would have won, had her Aunt Antiope not pulled her out of the race at the last moment. The defeated girl sat sobbing on the ground as the other Amazons congratulated the redhead. Her mother was trying to comfort her, reminding her of Asteria, but she barely heard her.

Aikaterine had won. She and Diana had been right at each others heels the whole way. But since Antiope had grabbed Diana when they re-entered the arena, Aikaterine had passed her and reached the finish line first.

A shadow passed over where Diana was hunched over, still crying. When she looked up, she was met by Aikaterine herself, the winner, standing over her smiling. She offered her friend a hand up. "Good game, Diana." But Diana did not take her hand, and so Aikaterine crouched beside her. "We're both winners, Diana. In fact, we all are. And that is the truth."


Lord Maxwell entered the building, Barbara following. From where she was crouched behind some bushes on the island - still smoking slightly from her father's Fires of the Underworld - Aikaterine watched them.

Armed guards stood surrounding the facility on lookout and high alert, ready to attack anyone and anything that came even close to those doors.

And so when something distant appeared far off in the sky, they opened fire. A golden bird looked to be flying towards them, but it was no bird.

It was a golden eagle, rather Asteria's golden eagle armour - Diana was wearing the suit of their greatest warrior.

She swooped in - literally - taking down the guards, Aikaterine taking this as a good moment for her to come out of hiding.

"Diana! Asteria's armour! My Gods... You renounced your wish," she realized. Steve was gone. "Are you okay?" Diana smiled sadly. Aikaterine pulled her friend into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry."

"It had to be done," Diana sighed. "It was the truth."

"I know. The truth is difficult sometimes, but it is the truth."

A shadow out of the corner of their eyes caught their attention - a figure stood up on the roof of the facility, peering down at them.

"What is that?" Aikaterine cried.

"That's Barbara."

"What - how?"

"I don't know. Barbara, what did you do?"

But Barbara didn't answer, only slunk down the wall and approached them. She had taken on the form of a cat, a cheetah, and her movements were sharp and precise.

She was leading a troop of armed guards.

"You take the guards, I'll deal with Barbara," Diana said.

"Okay - don't hurt her, she doesn't know what she's doing."

"I know." And with that the two Amazon-Goddesses split up.

Aikaterine had brought her shield with her, which came in handy as all the guards carried guns.

Once she took care of them, she searched for Diana and Barbara but could see no sign of either of them. She looked over the railing into the water - she had seen them swinging around above before.

The water was dark and she couldn't see anything beneath the surface - but then she saw a few flashes of blue.

Moments later, Diana's golden figure emerged, carrying Barbara's body out of the water and setting her on the ground.

"I had to stop her, she wouldn't stop," Diana said regretfully. Barbara winced and shivered.

"Go, I will stay with her. Stop Lord Maxwell."

Diana nodded and left them, rushing inside the building.

With her own powers, Aikaterine created a little fire to keep the shivering Barbara warm. Gradually, her cheetah form faded away, leaving her human again.

"Barbara? Barbara, can you hear me?" Aikaterine said softly.

Barb's eyes snapped open, and she jumped away from the redhead.

"Barbara!" Without another look Barbara leapt away over the facility wall. Aikaterine was quick to follow.

She found her at the cliffside, looking out over the water. She was hugging herself so she must have still been cold.

"Are you okay?" Aikaterine asked after a long moment of silence between them. She knew Barbara was aware of her presence.

"I'm not sure how to answer that."

Aikaterine came and sat down next to her. "I'm sorry it had to come to this." Barbara just shrugged. "The reason I grew distant with you was because you reminded me so much of Diana-"

"What?" Barbara scoffed, clearly in pure disbelief.

"Yes, you did. And if my feelings for her were driving my feelings for you, that wasn't fair to you, or to anyone. But, no, now I see that, while similar, I like you for you, Barbara. Your warm glow, your passion, your drive, it's all so infectious and inspirational. I love that about you - I love a lot about you."

Finally, Barbara looked at her. "You do?"

"Yes, I do." Hesitantly, Aikaterine reached out. Barbara let her take her hand and give it a squeeze.

They were stopped by a click behind them and both women turned to see an armed guard standing there facing them, rifle raised and ready to fire.

Acting quick, Aikat uncoiled her whip from around her wrist and struck the weapon out of the man's hands before striking him down as well. She held up the whip, recoiling it around her wrist and turning back to Barbara. "Just like your Indiana Jones. Though I was doing it long before."

This made Barbara chuckle a little. "So it's not a bracelet?"

"Not only a bracelet." The redhead sat back down. "You want to know what I think?"

"What?"

"I don't think you need a magic stone that grants wishes to have all that you want. I think you have the power inside of you to be who you want to be. It just matters how you choose to use it."

"Wow, that's very wise."

"It's the truth, and the truth is most important."

"I like you too," Barbara told her. "But I've got to know: who are you really?"

She had known it would eventually come to this. "Are you going to believe me if I tell you?"

"Honestly, after all this, I'll believe anything."

Aikaterine chuckled. "Very well. I am..."


Aikaterine strode confidently down the street, Diana at her side, the brunette in her civilian clothes while Aikaterine sported her armour and cloak.

"I never should have told you to blend in and hide your true self," Diana told her. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. But my gods does it ever feel good to get out of those ridiculous clothes!"

Diana chuckled. "You would have hated the '20s through '50s then, corsets and layers and stockings galore."

"Ugh, sounds awful."

"Excuse me?" A little girl ran up to them then. "Are you a princess?" she asked Aikaterine.

"Do I look like one?"

"Yes, you have a cloak and a tiara."

"Ah, I see. Well, I'm not - but my friend is."

The little girl gasped. "Really?!"

"Yes."

"A real-life princess?!"

"Yes."

"Wow, cool! I want to be a princess, but also a doctor. But people tell me I can't be both."

"Why not?"

"I don't know, they just say I can't." She shrugged.

"Well you can be anything and as many things as you want to be," Aikaterine told her. "What is your name?"

"Nikki."

"Well Nikki, I will tell my friend the princess about you - it'll be our little secret. How about that?" She winked.

The girl's expression glowed. "Okay! Thank you!" And she rushed off to rejoin her family.

Diana was smiling. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were beginning to warm to humans."

"Maybe," the redhead admitted. "Some of them, at least."

"You know where she is? Barbara?" Diana asked. She hadn't seen or heard from the blonde since that day at the facility.

"I do."

"I'm happy for you both."

"Thank you. And what about you?"

Diana sighed contentedly. "I'm happy too. I have a lot going on in my life, a lot to be happy about."

"I'm glad."

"Goodbye, my friend," Diana told her.

"Goodbye, Diana." The friends hugged. "See you soon."

On that note, the dear friends parted ways - separating for now, but certainly not forever.

And there we are, that's the end! I would love to continue this with the next 'Wonder Woman' film and/or perhaps the next 'Justice League' as well, but we'll have to wait and see!

Thank you so much for sticking with me throughout this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :)

Once more, thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed overall! :) Farewell dear readers!