Mercy and Punishment

Gary squinted his eyes when he tried to open them, seeing a warm violet light overhead that made it hard to look up. Raising a hand to cover his eyes, he was able to open them a bit more, seeing the blurry image of the ceiling more clearly, he also noticed a woman’s hand reach for his own. Feeling her fingers cross into his, her thumb rubbed circles around the back of his hand as he turned to see Alexa smiling warmly down at him with Harper asleep in her lap.

“Uhm… Hello.” He spoke up, unsure how to react to the woman’s act of affection as he slowly sat up.

“Your awake.” Helping him sit without disturbing Harper’s slumber, the red-haired woman cradled the boy in her arm while checking over Greg with the other, finding his arm no longer injured and likely neither was his leg. “How do you feel?

Pulling his legs over the lip of the marble table and sitting up to breath in, Gary made a face, deep in thought as he rolled his shoulder. “I… Don’t remember much… I remember stepping out of the bath place, then… A hand? A claw? I was…”

Feeling Alexa rub her thumb in circles over the back of his hand again, letting it go to help lay Harper next to his father without stirring him and sitting up herself to sit next to him on the table.

“Ocypete attacked you, she has become something… Terrible. We feared the worst for you when she took you away.” Cupping his hands in hers, Alexa tilted her head to see Gary’s expression as he looked down at her hands holding his. “Why did you flee the baths?”

Breathing in deeply, Gary winced, drudging up the bad memory.

“Her name was Olivia; she’s my wife, or… Was my wife, until recently.” He explained, finding he was looking down at the hand holding his, then back to the beautiful woman looking to him for answers. We were together for five years, I thought we were happy together… Until one day she told me she was seeing another man.”

Alexa noticed he appeared troubled, bringing it up, the man exhaling as he slumped his shoulders. Gary chuckled a bit to himself, before his lips turned to a painful grimace.

“She told me they had been seeing each other for a year behind my back, she even laughed at how I never knew until she told me… I was so confused, why would she do this? Did I do something wrong? I never understood why. In the end she left me, and Harper and we’ve never seen her since.” Breathing in again, Gary brought his hands to his face to wipe them over his eyes and chin. “I’m sorry about what happened at the baths, I’m… In my head I’m still with her, you know? Some part of me doesn’t want to betray her… God I’m such an idio…”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence when he felt a pair of hands gently cup his cheeks and chin, slowly tilting his head to the side to be captured by a pair of lips that softly kissed his own. Pulling away from the stunned man, Alexa smiled back at him.

“I do not think you are an idiot, Gary Thracy.”

Smiling, despite himself, Gary slowly nodded. “Thank you.”

The two were suddenly alarmed to the arrival of a procession of guards marching their way into the halls of the purple ray, led by Wonder Woman herself at the head of it who quickly ordered the guards to hurry in their actions. Between the two rows of guards, they were hauling with them a body they laid carefully before a nearby marble table next to Gary and Alexa, the guards attended to who they brought with them with utmost care. It did not take long for Gary to see that the person they had brought with them, was his own father.

“Dad? DAD!”

Quickly getting off to the ground and run towards his prone father, he was stopped by four of the guards who easily held him back before a single raised hand from Diana let him pass to see his father. Holding his father in his arms, the poor man broke down before the group of amazons, not one of them judged as they watched him drown in despair.

“Who did that? WHO DID THIS?!” He screamed out, hot tears running down his eyes as he looked to Wonder Woman and her sisters, each of them with a look of guilt just as their princess answered.

“Ocypete, the general to our army. She and the others have been driven mad by our affliction.”

“What are you going to do about it?” He demanded; his broken heart now overwhelmed with anger. “Your mother promised we would be safe until we could leave, does THIS look safe to you?!”

The amazons in the room looked apprehensive at the accusation, but they could not claim he was wrong. Some looking away while others stood defensively, keeping up a stoic resolve. Approaching the man, Diana unfurled the golden lasso from her belt. Taking his hand, she placed the lasso in his hand and wrapped it around his wrist, and did the same to her own arm, the golden rope glowing a golden light even in the ambience of the purple light overhead. At that moment, his anger dissolved, seeing the truth of how his father died saving the queen, and that even now a **** is being rallied to find his killer. Calmed down and nearly slumping back, Alexa was able to catch him before he collapsed. Looking up to the amazon princess, Diana pressed her crowned forehead against Gary’s, her eyes closed.

“I promise you Mr. Thracy, your father will be avenged.” Turning heel, Diana marched out, with her sisters in tow. Silently she whispered. “I only pray my mother does not demand an eye for an eye.”