Disclaimer: Wonder Woman and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics Inc., a subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences division of Warner Bros. I own nothing except the plot of this story.

Chapter 1: The Queen's Sorrow and Joy

In the days when the world was young, there were stories told of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes. Every man and woman, old and young, had a story to tell but for some, the most fantastical of all these ancient legends came from the land of Greece. What none back then knew was that from these ancient legends, a hero would rise to administer justice and peace for the future of mankind. But much suffering was endured before that time would come.

...

ATHENS
MARCH 21, 19:14 EEST
THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO

Hippolyta, queen and ruler of the Amazons, stood her ground on the threshold of the palace of Athens where for a brief time, she had sat on a throne and been queen of two nations. When Theseus had been named king of Athens for having slain the death-dealing Minotaur, his fame spread to the ears of the Amazons and Hippolyta lost her heart to the young king. However, when Theseus had reluctantly aided King Pirithöus in his mad quest to woo Persephone, an Athenian named Menestheus spread a lie that Theseus had died in the Underworld and declared himself king of Athens. When Theseus returned, Menestheus refused to believe that he was who he claimed to be and drove him from Athens under penalty of death.

Now seeking to erase anything that kept the legacy of Theseus alive, Menestheus had convinced the people of Athens that the Amazons were planning to conquer them and prepared for war against them. His men fought against her sisters even now, and would seek to earn some reward by killing any who so much as spoke on an Amazon's behalf. It was for this reason Hippolyta had come to the palace of Athens; she desired to punish Menestheus for his treachery.

"Come out and face me, you cowardly rat!" Hippolyta shrieked as she entered the palace, not even bothering to speak the name of Menestheus.

By the time she had reached the throne room, the Amazon queen's patience had worn thin, but she was not disappointed, for Menestheus had lingered in the palace while his men had been carrying out his plot. Menestheus was there now, clad in full armor, and his sword was drawn.

"So the barbarian queen comes to avenge her love," the usurper sneered. "I would have thought you had chosen to save yourself when you had the chance."

"My sisters are saving themselves even now," answered Hippolyta coldly. "They are saving themselves from the threat of death you raised against us."

"You had the chance to give yourself to me, barbarian. A pity then that I must destroy one so fair to keep my throne."

Hippolyta hefted her sword and took a defensive stance as if daring the cruel Menestheus to attack her. The usurper ran at her, preparing to thrust his sword through her body and pin her to the floor. However, Hippolyta wasn't foolish enough to charge in reply. She dodged her foe's thrust and countered with one of her own, which Menestheus only managed to block because he had a shield.

In moments, a vicious duel broke out between Hippolyta and the tyrant Menestheus. They hacked and cut and swung at each other and when their swords met, they pushed each other back and forth with their blades. Menestheus let his rage and disdain for his female opponent fuel every stroke he dealt, but Hippolyta was swifter and lighter on her feet, and the knowledge that her foe would kill innocents simply for standing beside her people made the Amazon queen more fearsome than she had ever been before. She fought like a lioness and for an hour, the halls of the palace echoed with the awful din of clanging swords and war cries that would make wild beasts tremble.

At the end of that time, both monarchs had their armor cut and scratched in several places and both of them were winded and bleeding. However, Menestheus was not willing to submit, for his pride only made his anger flare. He said with a voice belonging to a madman, "If you will not submit to my will, you daughter of dogs, then I will at least ensure that no spawn will result from your rebellion."

He took up his sword again and prepared to plunge it into Hippolyta's stomach with the blade pointed directly at her waist. But as he did so, Menestheus was caught off guard by what came next. Hippolyta seized the flat of the blade between her hands and with a swift move, she snapped it as though it were made of wood. Then before Menestheus could react, Hippolyta plunged her sword into the tyrant's stomach, but she only struck deep enough to wound her foe, for she desired Menestheus to know the degree of pain his treachery had given her. As she removed her sword, Hippolyta said to Menestheus, "Keep your life, you old wretch. But may the gods forever look on you with scorn for what you have done."

When she came to the entrance of the palace, Hippolyta saw what Menestheus' soldiers had done in following their leader's cruel command. The agora of Athens was in flames as were dozens of houses, citizens were running from the ruin even as the soldiers continued their pursuit of any Amazons returning in the city, and as she made her way through the streets, Hippolyta saw only the dead and heard the groans of the wounded and the dying. As Hippolyta looked around, a great storm of disgust and shame filled her heart. How could she and her people live here after seeing what men like Menestheus had done here?

She simply dropped to her knees with this feeling in her heart and remained there for a number of minutes until she heard voices and approaching footsteps, and when she saw who was there, Hippolyta nearly forgot her anger. The ones approaching her were a number of her Amazon sisters, her warriors and her subjects, weary and battered but alive. The party of Amazons helped Hippolyta to her feet and led her quickly to the harbor, where the rest of the Amazons who had lived through the battle were preparing to put to sea aboard triremes and skiffs that several Athenians loyal to Theseus had lent to them to ensure their escape.

…

Aboard her vessel, Queen Hippolyta was given the strictest attention from the healers among her people. She allowed only Antiope, her general, and Artemis, her strongest soldier, to stand beside her and converse with her as the healers had patients in more dire conditions to attend to. It was necessary that she spoke only with these two, for the future of their people was at stake.

It was Artemis who asked the question lingering on the minds of every Amazon. "My queen, what is to become of us?"

Hippolyta spoke with pain and anger in every word. She said, "We cannot live in man's society. Their minds have grown cruel, their hearts cold. Menestheus is the perfect example of the cruelty that men hold in their hearts. Had we not fought back, he would either have taken us for slaves or sent us to our deaths. Moreover, we have seen the cruelty that men like him brought upon their own people for standing loyal to the only man who loved me. We cannot hope to coexist with these cruel aggressors."

"But where will we go, Your Majesty?" inquired Artemis. "Menestheus will doubtlessly search for us in whatever land we settle in, and he will have us hunted down like animals for denying his claims to our lives."

"Take heart, sister. The gods will find a way," assured Hippolyta.

This hope would soon be all that they had to go on. For several weeks, the Amazons sailed far from the mainland of Greece, eventually passing through the Pillars of Hercules and through what today is called the Strait of Gibraltar. Though not one of them knew where they were going, the Amazons were guided by an unknown hand of fate.

After a few months, every Amazon on the Athenian ships received a marvelous surprise when a shout from the top of the main mast was heard. "Land, ho!"

This call was sounded to every ship, and the Amazons all cheered and shouted thanks to Olympus, for they had been brought to an island that they might call their home. After taking a few more days at sea to navigate the shoreline, the Amazons brought their ships near shore and disembarked to explore their new home.

The island was densely forested and home to wildlife akin to what the Amazons had seen in their old homeland before their time in Athens under Theseus' rule. There were no other people living there, and so the Amazons could have no fear of attack nor quarrels. For several years, the Amazons set to work building their own civilization and rebuilding their lives, and when the work was done, they could finally enjoy some measure of peace.

...

THEMYSCIRA

1941 A.D.

For thousands of years, Queen Hippolyta and her people, the Amazons, lived simple lives on their island home of Themyscira. Though they remained a nation of powerful warriors, they had no men living among them, for Hippolyta had decreed that men were forbidden to set foot on the shores of the island. Instead, every young woman on the island able to fight was trained to do so, while the others handled the other jobs of society as well: hunting, fishing, blacksmithing, weaving and tending to crops. As they were distanced from the world of men, the Amazons were granted eternal youth and beauty by the gods of Olympus. And to protect their home from all incursion, the Amazons' island home was hidden from the outside world by a great cloud of fog through which no ship could sail, or so it was said.

But though life was comfortable on Themyscira and the Amazons had seen no war in spite of their rigorous training as soldiers, Queen Hippolyta still felt that something was not right with her, as though some unseen wound was in need of healing. She consulted the only woman on the island with age enough to understand the will of the gods: the Oracle of the Amazons. When she asked what she must do to remedy this feeling, Hippolyta was told, "Go to the island shore and there, take clay from the ground and sculpt what your heart tells you."

Hippolyta did not understand, but she knew better than to deny the word of the wisest woman among the Amazons, so she had her horse saddled and rode down to the beaches of Themyscira. There, she dug a pit in the earth with her bare hands, then gathered up several handfuls of clay and laid them in the pit in a shapeless mound. Then Hippolyta began to focus inwardly and thought hard about what her heart desired. She remembered Theseus and Athens before the dark times came, and she remembered something she had not seen in nearly thirty centuries: young women with children, the sounds of song and laughter and the patter of small footfalls, and newborn babies clinging to their mothers.

Though she hardly knew the art of sculpting as well as she knew her way of life as a queen, the ruler of the Amazons began to sculpt the clay part by part, giving it the shape of an infant girl. Hippolyta formed the head first, making the sculpture's face appear as if it were asleep in a cradle. She formed the arms next and used her own nails to form the fingers on the statue's hands, and then added the body and legs, again forming the sculpture's toes with her nails.

As she lifted the clay infant to her face to look at it, Queen Hippolyta now understood what the Oracle had meant, and she said with gladness and devotion in her voice, "How beautiful! I love this little girl as if she were my own!"

Then she raised the sculpture to the heavens and called out, "Oh Hera, queen of Olympus and protector of our people, I ask that I be allowed to have this child as my daughter."

There came a sound on the wind like a hundred peacocks singing and the fragrance of lilies filled the air. Then Hippolyta heard a voice like a patient mother promising a child a reward earned for obedience. "You shall have your wish, Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. And she will be given a great name: Diana, for she will be a light to all she meets for all the days of her life."

A great beam of light shot from the sky and struck the clay infant, yet the sculpture remained intact despite Hippolyta's flinching. Suddenly, the clay became a cast of dry sand, and before the queen's eyes, the sand crumbled away to reveal a beautiful newborn girl.

The child's skin was light and as clear as day and she had a wash of dark hair crowning her head. Then as the baby's first cry cleared her lungs, she opened her eyes to look upon her mother.

Queen Hippolyta felt her heart melting inside her as she looked into her newborn daughter's eyes, for they were a rich blue like her own. She removed her cape and wrapped it around her daughter, and tears of utter joy washed over her face as she kissed her baby's cheek for the first time.

"My daughter," whispered Hippolyta. "My little Diana."

A/N: How was the beginning of Wonder Woman's origin in this first chapter, folks? Sorry if I made the ending of the chapter too sweet. I just love it when Hippolyta gets her wish to have Diana as her daughter.

Feel free to write a review if you like, and keep an eye out for Chapter 2, 'cause Diana's childhood will be as big a part of her origin as becoming a hero.